Sonnet: ‘Wanderer, or Odin/Merlin in the 21st Century’

It isn’t money, power, or (really) sex;
it’s wisdom, knowledge, understanding, truth,
the motivation from my earliest youth.
So now I watch as all our dreams turn wrecks,
as statesmen bluster, muscles bulge and flex,
economists forecast but can’t say sooth,
and life extension folks are thought uncouth–
they hoard possessions, but can’t save their necks.
I wandered, ragged, with a missing eye,
patched so none knew my implant’s extra sight,
seeking her who’d save from oblivion
the things I’ve found; for I see I must die,
and I’m now summoning the acolyte
who’ll carry knowledge on. Come, Vivien.

*****

The child wandering, the youth hitchhiking, the middle-aged tramp, the old hobo… in my view, they all have the spirit of Odin, Merlin, Hermes, Papa Legba, searching for knowledge, intermediary between the human and the divine/posthuman.

This sonnet was recently published in The Road Not Taken – a Journal of Formal Poetry. Thanks, Dr. Kathryn Jacobs!

Illustration: DALL-E