Limits

Pragya NatarajanNovember 15, 2018The Adventurous SpiritPoetry

Twinkles in the eyes
No room for surprise
Clear with the sunrise
In a massive cloud of glee

Out loud you cry
While your follicles fry
Under a sun glorious and free
There’s a chill breeze

Heart screaming for air clean of fumes
Of anger or smoke
Glistening are the dewdrops in a fast-paced, chill world
Dreams are nothing but whorls

But this dream seems false
In the grand scheme
For a good dream isn’t serenity
It is a ripped seam

Inward you go in a flash of thunder
Wondering where you can fly
Up, up, up in the sky
Where the story is nigh

Soon there is a ship and the crack of a whip
A sword appears in your furious arms
Itching for a chance to take a stance
Urging you to fight

There comes an octopus of amazing height
Breaking the ship and the whip
Sparing none in the way

Off you go holding a magical noose
Leaping to the octupus's lair
Where it steals away into the dark
Little laughter floats in the air, Hark!

In you tiptoe through the haze
Slowly do you gaze at a land
Much more beautiful than sea or sand
Full of tittering and jibing

Iridescent scales are not only on some mermaids
But cover the octopus as well
As it chuckles in return
Surprisingly

They smile and laugh only for your thoughts to take over
You sneak behind a mermaid as she talks of her lover
Holding a sword to her neck
You demand to know what’s next

Fixed are the thoughts of the octopus
As he walks you through an explanation
“The pirate captain was punishing a crew member who fell into our spell,
we had to free our ally from heresy as well

Though revealed he might be
Catching the man was a weakness
For it gave me time to attack

They’ve devastated our land
On looking south, your mind may understand.”
As you feel you’re doing quite well
And sheath your sword and turn to leave

Mentally you grieve
But soon a hand smoothly taps
Asking you to join an adventure in the world
Of stories untold

Excitedly you agree
Thinking in your head that you’re happy to be free
Brain so high, it’s in a tree
Internally exclaiming, “Wheee!”

Off you go with a mermaid
To a portal of extreme spirals
With a hypnotizing effect so advanced
You feel its disease might be viral

As an afterthought
You realize
“What about the mermaids?”
Everytime you think about them, your memory fades

Soon you see a long land of sand dunes scorching hot
Cowering in the heat are the mermaids and the octopus
Heading for the hypnotic spiral
Not the right land for you

Stepping onto a rocky road
You slowly tiptoe
Into a starry, ethereal land
With grey rock for sand

Up in the sky is a gorgeous view
Everything seems so vast
There is so much space it swallows your thoughts
The earth seems like an item of the past

Sea creatures need water so back you go
Only to find yourself on a mountain freezing cold
A peak which is so high
The entire world can be seen from the top which touches the sky

A lagoon now passes
A flash in your mind
Green and serene
Beauteous for all of a kind

Tired and weary
You settle into your own skin
To a home deep within
Waking to a warm light

“Mom, Dad, is there such a thing as too much adventure?” you ask
“There is no such thing as too much adventure,” they reply
For dear
The adventurous spirit has no limit

Pragya Natarajan is a tenth grader at Cupertino High School in California. Her hobbies are watching animated tv shows, running, reading, writing, and art. Her favorite color is red, and she loves interacting with people.