The Owl
I wanted to find
a reason
why I disappeared.
Then the owl came
circling my thoughts ___
seducing my mind slowly
subtly coming closer.
Perched upon a broken branch,
his indifference
abstract and imposing
revealed my need for meaning,
for dark quiet places of intensity.
Sometimes I feel myself
dissolving into space,
I get smaller and smaller
until I no longer exist.
(meanwhile)
____ the self
shaped by desire
exposed by my insatiable need
moves ever closer to the fire.
But nothing will keep us alive.
I dreamt I asked the fates
why I was being driven
by transitory lust.
(the fates answered)
“Meaning only exists when you
are looking for it, it will tempt you
like a lover and leave you like a beggar.”
And I thought to myself
god, isn’t this what living is?
The wanting that feeds you
the raging storm that seduces you
and always the need for more.
I love
the way we hungered
for one another
the sensuality, the greed and the thirst.
Our bodies
wrapped in the animalism of urge
the predatory talons of
infatuation.
Then I realized what nourishes us
also destroys us.
I have felt my life
unwind like threads,
pulling me forward and backward,
until it’s hard
to put the pieces
back together.
Tonight,
the gilded owl
called out my name,
his voice so familiar,
his eyes
dark and sad.
___ did you even notice I disappeared?
art and poem © Gesso Cocteau 2025
