Remain

Remain

by Tim Reed

He bids me to stay, to stand, to fight
while world in gaiety spins around
 Remain through day and heartless night
 to seek the seeker and in finding, be found.

To count as mere nothing a tumult of steps
 a vault of cheap smiles
 an abyss of vain words
but rather breathe fire and rend open soul
 To do more than stay - to remain.

In this way may I gain
 a shadow of that lone great form
 who, unmoved by all, sits in plain view of all the stars
 flung, fleeing
 before the glimmering eye and steady gaze
 of he who wears proudly the name
"Remain"

And I, though I be a lesser light,
bear witness to that steadfast one
though marked I am by this feeble frame
am filled to full by his unbound might

And when life as music-box winds to stop
and as the sweet melody ends refrain
 So may I wear his green laurel proud
 and show in its glory the name - "Remain"