The Duke roams in my brain, enchanted, delighted by his realm. The music pours from the sky, unlimited, dramatic, overpowering. Death has lost its bite and Infinity reigns for the Duke. His forests and rivers, his woods and manors, under the foliage stand still, beyond time's reach. And within the realm, love, love, love of the greatest kind, the purest love conceived in the Universe: my love for you.
Is it another planet? a parallel universe? is it real, unreal? Questions die on the threshold and beauty rises under my feet. Animals abound and trees, trees everywhere...The flow of nature bounds with our soul and body, we fly, we stream, we dream, we love caress and kiss and the wind pervades our limbs, do we exist, love burns and consumes and screams. There are no limits but joy and ecstasy.
The Duke knows the dance so well, the dance of old times, the dance of the beginnings, when the Earth was empty. Empty and intact. The dance of the planets around, of the stars below and above. The dance of my loneliness, waiting, waiting for you. Only the rain can bring you round, only the rain. And it never rains.
Sometimes, the Duke loses his realm and he cries, alone in a deep, deep coffin of abandon. How do you find the realm again? Life is an exile. Life is a lost path in the night, a long sentence for uncommitted crimes. My brain explodes in agony of wait. The Earth is a prison and a cruel mirror. Everything is here yet untouchable, unreachable. Life is longing and hoping.
But sometimes too, the Duke arises and welcomes the return of the realm. And the realm is Beauty. Who does not believe in Beauty is a damned soul. There is no god but Beauty. The blind cannot see, the deaf cannot hear, the dumb do not understand. Beauty is a secret, a key, a password. Beatrice. From the early days to now to ever. Showing the way. For Dante yes, and for me. I never betrayed. Beauty is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. And perhaps the most rarefied of all truths. The world was created for us to see and love and be in awe. How far removed we have become, no need to say.
And today again the Duke errs in the kingdom. He might be the last soul remaining but he has a long life, an eternity to offer. Long live the Duke.
