Amilcar's Apotheosis

Amilcar’s Apotheosis

There being some discussion,
rumour, gossip and hearsay
on the subject of Amilcar the hermit,
renowned sage and enlightened one,
his age being variously stated between
sixty and eighty years, we can assume
that he was already old when,
one fresh and clear-edged morning,
he found a basket with baby inside
on the threshold of his mountain cave.
The police being summoned
by the judicious use of a cellphone
proffered by the first of his supplicants,
investigations material and metaphysical
produced no erring nor desperate parents,
this process taking several weeks,
Amilcar had come to know the baby
and decided that he would raise the child,
its fate now entwined with the hermit’s
and, besides, he cared for it now,
having tended its needs during the weeks
when the parents were sought.
A diamond, one of many
brought by followers in gratitude
for the wisdom bestowed,
was sold to provide the funds
to support the raising of the child
and, for the next twenty years,
Amilcar tended, nurtured, protected it,
while the steady flow of followers,
come for the advice of the sage,
dwindled and eventually petered out
as his advice became a matter
of the raising of children in the correct manner,
the proper attention to education of the young
and the need to consider the pace
of release of a child into adulthood.
This dedication of the hermit
to the upbringing of his growing charge,
left him without thought
of the road to enlightenment
and his advice on child care
was not needed by those
that considered themselves adept in such matters.
Time found the hermit and the boy
(for so the child was),
isolated in their mountain fastness
yet happy in the company of each other.
When the boy was grown and eager
to venture forth into the world,
knowing the shape of his future
and impatient to reach for it,
Amilcar hugged him and let him go, understanding that,
as he had been the boy’s deliverance,
so had been the boy for him,
lifting him from the sole contemplation
of his own existence
to a greater revelation of his capacity to love,
this twist being the true enlightenment
he had sought for so long.
Alone as never before,
the hermit smiled with the knowledge
that his life was now complete.


Line Count: 63
Free Verse
For The Daily Poem: WdC Birthday Edition
Prompt: Write a poem about being alone. You must use the following words from the song: diamond, shape, twist, deliverance.