Once Upon My Dream Poem by Saskia Harjono

Analyzing the taunting jolts
within the very soul beneath my skin
drizzling in my vein, echoing
from a secret place
retorting to the deed so vain

For a split moment
I dream of a caress, so carefully veiled
reserved in a velvety chest
inside is the warmth, like steambathing
in winter snowstorm, soothing

And the feeling come rushing,
dripping, depicting the distinct allegory
of the vivid, so-called euphoria
and then vanishing,
as the hazy vapour subsides

The chest is where I keep the jolts,
my precious possession,
my elixir of life - discovered
as the fruit for merely being human
emerging, my striking beauty

Forgotten words, fading memories,
yet, as if refusing to synchronize its dreadful fate,
flirtatiously shows its pride - its striking beauty
and all the unsaid, revealed - all
the intoxicating fantasy, my jolts

Reflected beneath its surface is the image of Artemis
depicting his auburn silhouette, a diabolique
molded in complexity: of Aphrodite's most valued charm,
of passion and comfort, of fear and discouragement,
forming fiery moonlight beam in an eclipse

fighting with all its might, the jolts - now in staccato,
breaking free, wanting to be proclaimed
not knowing the Pandora box effect it conceives

Now as I see it,
my treasured Artemis, the essence of the meticulous jolts
were you my curse?

For having you imprisoned in my fortress of solitude,
radiant is your charm,
and I'm overwhelmed
now resisting, not pouring myself
into your no longer welcoming persona

Now, scrutinizing every bit of the delight
savoring the last glimpse of that very complexity
I leave the caress - no trail to return to
and erasing the path of the labyrinth
to the heart of the maze, no turning back

From the surface now
the caress is phony
illuminating the silver lining of the fading dream,
and the jolts
no longer exist

Once upon my dream,
my striking beauty
a beauty, no more