Integration
by Deborah Burns
Two soul-friends,
Spiritually pledged, yet driven by different forces.
Both seek to bond in miraculous
and uncommon ways,
and uncommon ways,
In the hope of securing ‘forever’
in a blood exchange.
in a blood exchange.
Mixing dreams and desires with obligation,
Tainting the spontaneity of innocent love.
d3rkangel.deviantart.com
Limerick Five
Was it Robin’s Lucinda who vowed
The intractable bond, when they bowed
To the candle’s joint mold,
Or Lucinda so bold
As to hook Robin, blood-sister sowed?
The intractable bond, when they bowed
To the candle’s joint mold,
Or Lucinda so bold
As to hook Robin, blood-sister sowed?
Psychological: As blood-sisters, two young women, unmarried, with significantly different family backgrounds, are bound together voluntarily, but for different reasons. A needfulness drives the passion of one, who, as a victim, gropes for security in the simplicity of a peer; a kindly desire and willingness forges the agape of the other, who goes along for the ride, impressionable. The blood-sisters make their pact, and the relationship rolls a little harder, now that it is obligated. So, what rolls hard leaves a groove, unless founded on rock. And in this interpersonal furrow, up and down marry, adding doubled friction to each individual’s wending course. If the pact includes this eventuality, great! If not, then an imbalance sores at every difficulty since made mutual.
Philosophical: What is in a special pact between friends? Are they any more or less worthy of each other’s companionship because of it? Are they really better friends, confirmed as such? Of course, there is the promise of longevity in either friend’s loyalty expressed in the vow, the ‘thick or thin’ allegiance. But why the ceremony as this formalizing a promise between two who are already faithful? The answer may rest merely in the merits of convention as a backing; or, the convention’s exercise may betray a restlessness, a fault, in its implication of surety on what is really a latent distrust.
Sociological: Much of human history, as we are taught, involves compacts, formal agreements, treaties, and the like that preface and conclude consequential social actions. For example, in the United States, when the anti-trust laws of the Roosevelt Administration were legislated, an agreement in the form of a mandate legally obligated corporate entities to ‘play ball’ with a government entity. In my opinion, one imbalance, the monopoly in question, had been exchanged for another, governmental infringement on private enterprise. The benefits of fair industrial competition, intended in the regulation measure, also effects a zero-sum loss for the subject corporation(s). The non-mutual mandate, far from a compromise, has of its lawful coercion the domineering quality of an unruly relationship between the two necessary parties.
Soul-Friends - dixonho.tumblr.com
The poem Integration blew me away on many levels in thinking about my love relationship and my friends. It is truly beautiful and thought provoking. Thank you for sharing all this beautiful work.
Thank you so much for your very kind comments. I am thrilled that it had such a profound impact on you!