Never there lived a man
With a name that rhymed with ‘The Man’
He was the ruler of all land
Of all trees and all sparrows that lived within;
Of all ocean and whales and fish and reefs;
He was the ruler of the snow he melted
And of the night sky, he killed.
Never there lived a man
Too strong; too powerful.
Was he immortal?
But his face and arms wrinkled like last year’s apple.
Far above his wilted back
And just below his sinking brows
Were his Eyes.
Dreamy, dreamy eyes.
Eyes like cosmos- filled with stars and ambitions.
Like the void infinitely consuming light
The pitch-black beads absorbed endless seas of knowledge.
But oh the contradiction,
Like a single candle burning in a dark, grand palace
His eyes shone, brighter than any other fragment of his weary body.
Never there lived a man
Sitting pompously, yet rusting was his throne.
He called to the heavens, “I am not alone!”
He donned on his back a cape of loneliness
Not an echo to be heard.
“Tomorrow is mine own day”,
He told himself every yesterday.
Never there lived a man
He had friends
But ill-wishers, he had more.
He had but only two archnemeses-
Time and The Man himself.
There were others but
It was impossible to reach him after all.
T’was not because he was high up above
But ‘cause he was found nowhere
Except for the depths of the nether
Where his body sunk from the weight of his sins.
Still, his prideful neck stuck not below.
Never there lived a man
The tyrannical emperor, feared by all.
“A murderous beast who-
Killed his brothers and sisters and himself too.”
The voices called him cruel names.
But he was loved and he loved.
He laughed and he cried.
“What was he?”
The ghosts asked.
His fists clenched to unveil his skin calloused
And all those countless scars.
The scars he collected fighting monsters inside him.
But so, so satiny were his palms
With which he caressed his sons and daughters.
Was he a demon or an angel?
He was but only a Man.
Hopes and dreams
And bones and flesh
He was a fragment not of light
Nor of darkness.
An insect in the vast space
A locust is what he was.
One only wanted to kill him,
Or one didn’t care at all.
Look at them, the bugs
Tiny-tiny and mortal
Every poison on land tried as their enemy
But their numbers fail to erode.
Never there lived a man
Careful!
If you ever thought-
“He is but an only one.”
Was he more than many?
For he was-
The infinity.
I am but just a teller
And he was but just a man
A Man there lived never
Or live, did he ever?
– Inspired by the thoughts on humanity in “The Three-body Problem” by Cixin Liu.
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