Lightsaber

Last week, my son-in-law bought me a lightsaber building experience at Galaxies Edge in Walt Disney World. It was a surprisingly moving experience. All that night afterward I lay awake, composed my thoughts into a free-verse poem … something I’ve never written before.

I thought I might share it with you…

Lightsaber

I stood outside Savi’s Workshop
In fictional Batuu
Made real by corporate interest
From the dreams of
My younger self.
Brought by my son to
Build a Lightsaber
Of my own
As he had done before me.

As I sat in contemplation
Upon a fake rock wall
My thoughts turning to
Two Starlings, very real,
Behind me in a bush
Oblivious of me
Engaged in ageless argument.
One, a child angry and confused
Raged against the other in its ignorance
As the parent urged the first
Simply to fly.
Not to follow it’s parents former courses
But to find its own 
And by that simple wisdom
Of rising above 
To thrive.

Our number is called
The commerce concluded
And we are ushered
Into a fiction
That is only as real as we wish.
My hands fumble
To assemble this form before me
Into a semblance of myself
The starlings conflict
Still raging softly in my peaceful mind.
Yet, with the urging of gentle helping hands
It sits cradled before me at last.
In the dim and somehow sacred room
It’s light is kindled anew
And it is my own.

So why do I stand
Amid this happy throng
With tears streaming from my eyes
As I hold aloft
The lighted embodiment
Of my souls desire...
To be that more elegant weapon
From a more civilized time
And urge each soul I meet
Angry and confused
To fly?

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Copyright (C) Tracy Hickman / May 2021 / All Rights Reserved.