An Elegy for the Sage

By Alex Raia

An Elegy for the Sage

All things joyous gave him his ticket

His ticket to fly, his ticket to forget

I’m sure he smiled when he passed through the gate

Where the ticket clerks name is Death

He felt that death was to begin anew

I think we could all use his wisdom

How could he leave so soon?

So I am left feeling blue

And salty like the Dead Sea

A sea that rolls me over and feeds me its surplus

From an 8 foot tall wave

The spine of the wave rises to meet my mortal flesh

Relentless, the wave tosses me under the surface

I guzzle a mass of salt water in an effort to breathe

I recover with a saline pang in the back of my throat

I cannot rinse my mouth of this hurt, so I digest

It’s very sad to see the Sage go

He once said that trying to define yourself

Is like trying to bite your own teeth

He dissected the human thinking epidemic

He breached the castle walls surrounding the heart

Only to find: What kaleidoscopic, sensitive beings we are inside

He spoke of mysteries, never of certainties

His truth resonates with my whole being

It gets passed on through mysterious ripples;

Wave-trails of his wisdom can still be felt

If you keep your boat still enough

He would think my idolatry vain

And perhaps I would agree

He and I agree on a lot of things, you see

But if I were to show him this note

He would laugh into a coughing fit

As he put out his cigarette

He truly understood the Universe

And everyone who understands the Universe knows:

That when the daffodil wilts,

Or when the squirrel gets hit by a car,

Or when the whale spills ashore,

Or when the author has nothing left to say anymore

The body dries up, but the energy remains

Forevermore