The Truth of Delusions, by Cynthia Pitman

Lamp of Hathor, artist unknown (Egypt) c700 BCE - 100 BCE

​The Truth of Delusions
 
In a cavern in Dendera
is an ancient cryptic carving.
Sleek, svelte, bulbous at one end,
a transparent coil holds a snake 
slivering in place.                                   
Are those contoured lines my arms spreading wide 
to embrace, to contain
the bursting venom of the reality inside?

Or is this carving an ancient filament 
meant to bestow light on dark?
Rather than a snake,
is it instead a delusion,
the filament bursting, ready to explode 
and scorch all truth eternal?
                                                                         
“Seek and ye shall find.” 
So we seek –  but we do not find. 
All delusions bend the truth into a lie.
They deny a reality
that threatens us with the truth.
But we cannot bear the truth.
We will die.
                                                                .
Once again we have sought relief 
from reality by way of fantasy.
Deluded, we falter, 
but still we seek the truth transcendent. 

Cynthia Pitman
​
Cynthia Pitman, a retired Advanced Placement English teacher from Orlando, Florida, has been published in Ekphrastic Review, Scarlet Leaf, Vita Brevis, Pain and Renewal Anthology, Time Anthology, Third Wednesday (One Sentence Poem Contest finalist), Saw Palm (Pushcart Prize nominee, 2019), Amethyst Review, Adelaide, Right Hand Pointing, Red Fez (Story of the Week), and others. Her first poetry collection, The White Room, was published by Kelsay Books in 2020.