The Choice: A Narrative Poem

 THE CHOICE

A Narrative Poem

Henry N. Silva

Midland; where day meets night and where night meets day

Where magic and science become one

Gio takes it all in, knowing this day will be his last there

He takes in the perfect sky and weather

Not too bright or dark, not too hot or cold

He looks upon all the wonderful machines

Aided ever-so-slightly by magic

The limited land which everyone wants

Which is exactly why he must now go…

His superior stands before him

“Sorry,” the brooding man says, plainly

“We can no longer afford to employ you”

“But I have no family,” Gio sighs

“How can I stay?” He asks, despite knowing the answer

“You can’t,” the older man responds bluntly,

Raising his arms in opposite directions, “Now you must choose.”

Gio looks through the clear, virtual shields protecting Midland

Far into the east, he sees Nightland

Where bright spots of magic pierce through the darkness

Far into the west, he sees Dayland

Where cities stand tall, beneath the eternal sun

The magic and mythic creatures of the night entice him

As does the advanced technology of the day,

More advanced than anything else he has known in his two decades alive

He looks back at his former employer, “Is magic hard to master?”

The older man raises an eyebrow, “Have you ever tried it?”

Gio sighs again, “Yes… It was fun… But hard…

I think I’ve made my choice.”

He points to the west, and then instantly wonders;

Did I choose right?

TEN YEARS LATER

Gio awakens in his small, rundown home…

Through his window shades, he sees the eternal light of Dayland

Grunting, he stumbles out of bed,

Doing his best to ignore the industrial sounds outdoors…

He looks up at a bought painting on his wall,

Depicting a wizard of light and a wizard of darkness

He gazes at the hero, lamenting what he did not strive for

His eyes then move over to the villain of the piece,

As he wonders if he would have become that instead…

“Things could always be worse, I suppose…”

He had always thought about trying to paint as well,

But always told himself “Some other time!”

As usual, he steps out into the streets,

Heading towards his mundane work of fixing machines

On his way, he finds a homeless man, drawing in a notebook

“Did someone buy that for you?” Gio can’t help but ask

“No,” the hoodlum responds. “Bought it with the money I had left”

Gio raises an eyebrow, “May I ask why?”

“Helps me live with the choices that ruined my life…

That’s all life is ever about, right?

Finding a way to live with the choices you make!”

Related: Poetry Repository

Poetry Repository: Holiday 2023 Edition

        Happy new year. Despite wanting to post more, I had to take a break for a month due to personal stuff. That said, while I was away, I wrote a bunch of new poems (24 to be exact). Rather than add to my last poetry repository, I figured I might as well just create a separate post instead…

        So without further ado, here you go:

OVERLAP

One man murders another man

Only to then be killed himself

One crime overlapping with another

Mistaken for a double-homicide…

A HAUNTED MOON

A broken, rusted starship

Caught in a planet’s orbit

Mistaken for a small moon

With a station built within

And an alien pilot

Like a tall, white jellyfish

Unable to communicate

Mistaken for a ghost…

SEEING FATE

An ancient building

Sees the modern one

Just across the street

A grim reminder

Of what is to come…

MORE THAN ENOUGH (HAIKU)

Dark trees and a dark-blue sky

Lit only by the small, crescent moon

But still enough light; more than enough

FLASHBACKS (HAIKU)

To cringe,

Or not to cringe?

…To cringe…

BLACK SHEEP

Woman, living with her husband and sons

Misunderstood by them all

Man, living with his wife and daughters

Misunderstood by them all

GUILT

Wallowing in the guilt of mistakes long passed

Wishing now for the happiness of others

When I should instead be wishing for my own

ALWAYS A REASON

Humans of the far future

Fly away to somewhere new

A lush, habitable world

Away from all the conflict

Of the Earth they left behind

A great opportunity

For a rare, fresh beginning

To erase the past mistakes

…But soon, new conflicts arise

Always a reason to fight…

IN ANOTHER LIFE

In another life

Maybe you became

The hero you always

Wanted to be

Or maybe you became

The villain instead

Or maybe in that life

You’re a nobody

Just like you are here

PAINTINGS (HAIKU)

The only way to see

The influencers of the past

How they wanted to look

REMNANTS

A faded billboard, barely visible

With an outdated logo and font

A relic of the past, soon forgotten

Like wrinkles, chipping away at youth

INVASION! (HAIKU)

Aliens invading the Earth,

In search of better opportunity…

Why does this sound familiar?

ONE AND THE SAME

A trio of travelers

One of The Roman Empire

One of Ancient Greece

And one of the old Norse lands

All at odds with one another

But together they enter

The realm of the Gods

Where they find a tall, bearded man

His face aged with eternal wisdom

“I am King of all Gods,” he says

“But which?” A traveler asks,

“Zeus? Odin? Jupiter?”

The God King raises an eyebrow,

“I am all those names, yet none.”

SOME THINGS REMAIN

Settlers arrive in America

Quickly, they construct a lighthouse

A design dating back to Ancient Greece

A sign of the things that remain

No matter how far humanity may go…

NOTHING LOST (HAIKU)

No matter the road taken

At least one thing will be missed out on

So nothing is lost, really…

FRIENDS

Real friends

Imaginary friends

Artificial friends

At this point,

What’s the difference?

IRONY OF A NAME

Foreign parents, now settled in America

Give their new-born a name from their culture

When an “American” name would have made more sense

Meanwhile, back in their home country

A different new-born is given an “American” name

By their Hollywood-obsessed parents

When a non-American one would have made more sense

REST AREAS

Rest areas on the highway

Different from continent to continent

Or even country to country

Let alone region to region

Not to mention state to state

Yet they all serve the same purpose…

ANCIENT ECHOES

Hercules and Thor, both sons of God-Kings

Both needing to learn the art of discipline

Hermes and Loki, Gods of tricks and thieves

Both with twisted senses of humor

Greek mythology and Norse mythology

Both, at times, echoes of one another…

ASTEROID COMMUNITY

Asteroids, large and far apart from one another

A far cry from the action set pieces of movies

But rather suitable homes for humans of the future

One such human makes their way from an asteroid of houses

To one of stores, restaurants, and the like

Just everyday living, for these “space boys and girls”

COME BACK DOWN TO EARTH

The boy sits beside his bed, playing with his toys

Imagining as many stories as he can

Until his mother walks in, “Come back down to Earth,”

She says, “Time for the story-maker to go to sleep.”

The man sits at the cafe, writing in his notebook

Imagining as many stories as he can

Until his wife shoots him a text, “Come back down to Earth,”

She says, “Time for the storyteller to head on home.”

TURNCOAT

An agent becomes a double agent

And then a triple agent after that

Always switching, caring just for themselves

Eventually ending up alone

ICE-OLATION

Lone, icy moon on the edge of the universe

Atmospheric, but dark, mountainous, and barren

A small station with a synthetic food printer

With a solar panel that barely still works

Is my only source for remaining alive

I could have been exiled anywhere

A misty swamp, a world of islands… Anywhere!

But, no. Of all places, it had to be here…

COMPETITION

Several different Private Investigators

All called upon simultaneously

To solve the same crime as one another

A crime staged by one of the PI’s themselves

So that he may “solve” it with great ease

A chance to beat the competition, at last

…If only he remembered that his rivals

We’re probably the greatest detectives in the world…

Peace!

My Own "Ozymandias" Sonnet

  BACKGROUND: Way back in the late 1800’s, two writers named Percy Shelley (husband of Mary Shelley of Frankenstein fame) and Horace Smith challenged each other to a competition: Write a poem (a sonnet, specifically) called Ozymandias (the Greek-given name of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II). Historians reading this likely know that Ramesses famously had a giant statue with words at its feet that basically bragged about how his kingdom and legacy of greatness would last forever, only for that very same statue to end up tumbled over, ironically surrounded by vast, barren desert…

Shelley’s poem (which was used as the inspiration of the Breaking Bad episode of the same name), explored this irony head-on, highlighting how the pharaoh’s hubris ultimately led to his own demise. Smith’s poem, on the other hand, took things a step further, by comparing the fall of Ramesses’s kingdom to the possibility of a post-apocalyptic future London, making the point that all “kingdoms” come and go in cycles, no matter what.

That all being said, several months ago I was discussing this very topic with a history buff friend of mine, who claims that a lot of “discoveries” that were made under Ramesses’s rule (medical, agricultural, etc.) went on to shape the future world for many ages to come, regardless of whether people even knew it or not. I’m not smart enough to know whether or not my friend is talking out his ass, but nevertheless, his words still inspired me enough to make me write an Ozymandias sonnet of my own. I used “Shakespearean rules” for mine, like Shelley, whereas Smith used “Italian rules.” That said, I didn’t pay attention to meter when I wrote this, so I apologize if that upsets anyone…

Anyway, here you go:

The great pharaoh looks upon his kingdom

A kingdom that once stood tall, above all

Now he watches it crumble, in lonesome

For what rises must eventually fall

Far off lies the statue of his image

Words of his “greatness,” written at its feet

Now a mere joke, as is his lineage

“Greatness,” now a legacy of defeat

…But then he recalls, all he discovered

Medicine, military, so much more

All which his time in power uncovered

All for the world to forever adore…

He looks to the future that will forget him

Knowing that it wouldn’t exist without him

…Well, thanks for indulging in my mediocre poetry!

Peace!

Related: Poetry Repository

Poetry Repository

EDIT: Scroll to the bottom for links to all my other poetry posts, and more!

  Recently I went through a phase where I wrote a handful of small poems (not strictly haikus, just small poems in general). Figured I might as well share them here. I may come back and add additional entries if I get bored and write more…

LIMBO

You don’t know what you want

Can’t accept what you need

Can’t just relax either

So welcome to limbo…

NOW

Do not worry about

Writing everything down

Or getting it all out

Just worry about now

SELF-EXPRESSION

Desire to belong

Mixed in with the fear of

Overwhelming them all

But what more can you say?

You’re human, after all

SCIENCE & NATURE

The pureness of the past is important

As is the advancements of the future

We can have both, in this world we call home

SHORELINE COMMUNITY

Summer rolls around

The beach comes alive

People come and go

All with a story

All with a mission

A mission to feel

Feel alive again

Even if only

For just one last time

Cause every time counts…

The bars come alive

As do the cafes

And all the lodging

Arcades and whatnot

Music festivals

And more of the like

All with a purpose

A purpose to help

Help others to feel

Feel alive again…

But none of it lasts

All temporary

Only one season

One season per year

Before it all dies

Dies out once again

And only few remain

The few who belong

Who truly belong

The few born for it…

Those few aren’t you

Time for you to go

The shore won’t save you

Only one thing can

That one thing is you…

THE BOY & THE LAMPPOST

A small, old-fashion lamppost

In his grandmother’s backyard

He once played with it often

Way back in his toddlerhood

Now he visits, as a man

Passing by that same lamppost

But unable to recall

All that it once meant to him

Another piece of his youth,

Forgotten, nothing more than

A vague memory, fading…

EUROPE (HAIKU)

Good food and dry summers

Ancient buildings with character

All I took for granted…

INSOMNIA (HAIKU)

Sleepless nights

Over and over

But screw it…

MATTER

Every sentence must matter

Every line must matter

Every word must matter

Every moment must matter

In one way or another…

OVER/UNDER (HAIKU)

Big things are overrated

So focus on the small things instead

Small things are underrated…

BOOM & BUST

Many kingdoms consume each other

Until only a few remain

But then they become unstable

And fall apart

Into many kingdoms again…

MERGER (HAIKU)

Two universes

Secretly merged together

Now, memories clash…

JUST A FEELING

A bleak future, where all humans are sterile

A future where everyone is cloned

The population remains the same

Generation after generation…

You pass by someone familiar

Maybe the person you are cloned from

Knew the person that they were cloned from

Or maybe the people they were cloned from

Were the ones who were really together…

Just a feeling…

EVIL ALWAYS RISES

Always a need to keep training

And always a need to prepare

Because evil always rises

No matter what form it may take

DAM HEIST

A dam is bombed, flooding a nearby town

All so that the cops would be too busy

To stop everything from being robbed

A once-in-a-lifetime diversion…

INFLUENCE

A spark, expanded with gasoline

Instead of being allowed to

Expand naturally, on its own…

THE BULL

Grab the bull by its sharp horns

Not to be its enemy

But to learn to work with it

AGING POLITICS

Personal politics

Becomes more central with age

For one reason or another…

HIGHWAY EXITS (HAIKU)

Entering a run-down town

Practically a different world

Dangerous, yet nostalgic

COMMUTE (HAIKU)

Underground transit

Ancient, yet still relevant

Proof of timelessness

BOSTON

Closest U.S. city to Europe

In a few different ways, in fact

A transition point, between two worlds…

DISTRACT (HAIKU)

You used to be my distraction

Now I need something to distract from you

Funny how the tables can turn

CHANCE

Isolation; calm and peaceful

…But connection may be better

Not essential, but nonetheless,

The chance of it is always there

However small that chance may be

IDLE

A fantasy world

One that never breaks down

Destined to be magical forever

But also destined to never develop

For development only leads

To the end of the magic…

ECHO LAND

The Wild West, land of no rules once more

Since the fall of the U.S. government…

A young woman stands there alone, watching

As ravagers take away all her land

Land which had belonged to her family

For too many generations to count…

She recalls her parents once telling her

How it all once belonged to the natives

Until her ancestors came and took it

Funny how things come and go in echoes…

NEW JERSEY

Deep forests, humid in the summer

Maybe a gas station here and there

Contrasted with expensive beaches

And rusty cities, some riddled with crime

But mostly suburbs, always the same

…And yet, there’s something to admire

A nostalgia, that can’t be explained…

SIDEQUESTER

The other heroic knights

Make me do their “dirty work”

In this vast, magical land…

But being the “sidequester”

Has perks, believe it or not

Less pressure to live up to…

WHO SAYS?

Find your own small corner of the world

So you can be peacefully alone

Cause who says you need other people?

BLUE BLOOD (HAIKU)

This ain’t the Middle Ages

Nepotism is no longer praised

Quite the opposite, in fact…

SURVIVAL MODE (HAIKU)

Sometimes relaxation

And the human need to survive

Can be one and the same…

CASH (HAIKU)

Driven by money

When you should simply relax

Let life take its course…

CENTRAL PARK

Seemingly normal at first

But look closer

At the stones between the greenery

For ruins of a world long gone…

LAND OF SILENCE

A community founded by the deaf

Now their descendants speak only in sign

No need for the sounds of their voices

Whatever those sounds may be…

TRUCKER

His wheels are his home, his shelter

Typical diners, his nourishment

But what more could ever be needed?

BEHIND THE GIANT

A small, colonized moon

Orbiting a gas giant world

Moon-dwellers, exposed to sun for months

And then left in darkness for months

Darkness, when the crazies come out to play

When the vulnerable must be on their toes

Around the clock, until they see the sun again…

OTHERS (HAIKU)

We want to show others

How much we have changed over time

Not always an option…

NOTEBOOKS (HAIKU)

Too many notebooks

I need to fill them all up

The answer? Poems…

MODERNISM (HAIKU)

Europe, older than the U.S.

Yet still somehow a fair bit more advanced

At least in certain ways, that is…

ANCIENT (HAIKU)

Poetry

The most ancient form

Of “word art”…

BLESSING/CURSE

I see a gorgeous river

On my way to work each day

Reminder of my blessings

Despite all of my curses…

HAIKU PURPOSE (HAIKU)

Say as much

As you clearly can

In few words…

VITAL (HAIKU)

Sadly, pain is vital

Because only pain can create

Art that is truly great…

FEW (HAIKU)

Only a few friends

Will ever truly get you

But “few” is a lot…

FORCED TO STAND BACK (HAIKU)

A monster you can’t defeat

And a loved one you cannot protect

No matter what others say…

RED FLAGS

Friend becomes enemy

Secrets given away…

Learn to notice red flags

Gradually over time…

SOLITARY VALUE (HAIKU)

Peace and quiet

The only solution

Sometimes, that is…

BLURRED LINES (HAIKU)

Good and evil

Difference is hard to see

In the real world…

INSPIRATION (HAIKU)

Find your place of inspiration

And stay there until inspiration strikes

No matter how long it may take…

DOES NOT EQUAL (HAIKU)

Elders deserve respect

But age does not equal wisdom

Even within sound minds…

GHOSTS (HAIKU)

How can ghosts even haunt people now?

When most of us choose to live alone these days?

Glued to televisions and phone screens…

PARADISE LOST (HAIKU)

Sometimes, all it can take

Is just one, tiny little thing

To ruin paradise…

CHECKPOINT

A large, metal cylinder lands on Pluto

The furthest human outpost to date

Large, metal arms extend from the vessel

Ripping fuel and steel from buildings nearby

Soon enough, the alien ship completes its work:

An exact replica of itself

One which then takes off flawlessly into space

Landing on the Neptune moon of Triton

The second-furthest human outpost to date…

Peace!

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Some Old & New Poems of Mine

Poetry Repository: Holiday 2023 Edition

Poetry Repository: Holiday 2025 Edition

Poetry Repository: New Years 2026 Edition

Random Haikus

Solar System Haikus

Haikus I Recreated from Memory

MORE Haikus I Recreated from Memory

"Legacy" Sonnet

The Choice: A Narrative Poem

Fiction Repository

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