the

infinite dream

the

infinite dream

JASPER ELIAS

Notion Press Old No. 38, New No. 6 McNichols Road, Chetpet Chennai - 600 031 First Published by Notion Press 2017 Copyright © Jasper Elias 2017 All Rights Reserved. ISBN 978-1-946515-91-9 This book has been published with all reasonable efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. No part of this book shall be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The Author of this book is solely responsible and liable for its content including but not limited to the views, representations, descriptions, statements, information, opinions and references [“Content”]. The Content of this book shall not constitute or be construed or deemed to reflect the opinion or expression of the Publisher or Editor. Neither the Publisher nor Editor endorse or approve the Content of this book or guarantee the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the Content published herein and do not make any representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose. The Publisher and Editor shall not be liable whatsoever for any errors, omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause or claims for loss or damages of any kind, including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage arising out of use, inability to use, or about the reliability, accuracy or sufficiency of the information contained in this book.

CONTENTS

1. Comfort1 2. An Evening in Somerset

3

3. Rome’s Lament

5

4. The Element’s Ballad

7

5. The Lost Rapture

8

6. The Man with the Yoke

9

7. The Moment

10

8. To Elena

11

9. Until the Sun Turns Black

13

10. The Surrender

15

11. The Picture on a Wall

17

12. The Gunner’s Prayer

19

13. The Lost Victory

21

14. The Numbers

23

15. The Escape

25

16. After the War, Part 1

29

17. Being Us

31

18. Empty34 19. The Fortingall Yew And You

35

20. Justice Spared

38

21. Jimmy’s Bar & Grill

40

22. Last Rites

43

23. Dear Mother

45

v Contents

24. Carla’s Wait

47

25. Kahwa Murrah in Syria

51

26. Kaira’s Trophies

54

27. Mystic of the Return

55

28. Phoenix Lights

56

29. See Me Through

58

30. After the War, Part 2

59

31. Aftermath

60

32. Born Again

62

33. Champions63 34. Coming Home

65

35. Starting Over

67

36. The Blind

69

37. Sterility and Intangibility

70

38. The Infinite Dream, Part 1

72

39. The Call

73

40. Soul74 41. Lest We Part

75

42. The Armadas

77

43. The Centurion’s Revery

78

44. The Lesser Gods

80

45. The Mettle of Separation/ The Endurance of Love

82

46. The Assassin’s Saga

86

47. The Ode to Love

88

48. The Other Side to Fences

89

Contents vi

49. The Pharaoh’s Mistress

90

50. Charlotte & Riley

91

51. After the War, Part 3

95

52. The Prayers and the Believers

96

53. The Shield and the Mistress

98

54. The Search

99

55. The Prized Wait

100

56. The Run

102

57. The Torch Bearer

104

58. The Takers

105

59. The Uneventful Load March

106

60. What Makes The Turkish Heart Beat

108

61. The Wooden Steeple

110

62. Tristesse Harbor

114

63. The Soldier’s Predicament

117

64. The Infinite Dream, Part 2

119

65. The Tunnel

120

66. The Weight

121

67. The Shield

123

68. Arthur125 69. Endless127 70. Sunsets in Casselman

129

71. Fast Trains

131

72. Love?133 73. Precious Time

vii

134

Contents

74. The Picture on the Wall, Part 2

136

75. Too Long in Expulsion

138

76. The Unending Test

140

77. Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie

141

78. The Soldier’s Wedding Song

142

79. The Silent Stand-Off

144

80. Man Down: Delusions and Torniquet

146

81. The Insignificant King

148

82. The Infinite Dream, Part 3

151

83. The Elusive Dream

153

84. Routine Flight

156

85. Beretta®™ And Gerber®™ Days159 86. Rubble, Reality & The Maker

162

87. The Recluse

164

88. The Final Push

165

About the Author

167

Contents viii

COMFORT

I found a little comfort today; An easy little feeling That is as comfortable as A mother’s bosom. For a moment, All anxiety and fears vanished Into thin air, And I was deeply satisfied. As satisfied as A beggar swallowing His last morsel of food. As satisfied as The ones around who Has just passed from Irreparable disease into The stillness of expiration. As satisfied as The one who goes back To the one who betrayed him To lie next to her

1 Jasper Elias

Just for old times’ sake; Where in the absence Of feelings, Memories take their place To give the momentary meeting Some substance, Some grace, Some purpose.

The Infinite Dream 2

AN EVENING IN SOMERSET

In some moorland by the Axe and Brue Tending to her flock and crops By the reeds that whisper with the wind Pippa picks a flower and stops There’s a distant humming in the air The kind she’s heard before The kind that floods her memories; That sends her to the door She looks up to the clouds to see The wingman and his pawn Then lifts her dress up to her knee And ambles like a fawn The mellow sunlight kissed her cheeks Against the war torn wall Where every dusk she leans upon To dream with shadows tall She looks at where she first made loveAnd the heather by the brook; At what is now a passing phase Or a chapter in a book

3 Jasper Elias

She tucks her hair behind her ear Then sits to pick the weeds That grow amidst her flower bed And smother new sown seeds She hums a tune her mother sang When she had just been born It had always brought her father home From his battles, wars forlorn While somewhere far along the coast By the Bristol’s mist drenched silt In the midst of wetland willows lies Pippa’s Corporal husband killed There’s a distant humming in the air As the warplanes cross the shore; But today is different because her heart Says he’s coming home for sure

The Infinite Dream 4

ROME’S LAMENT

Had Teutoburg not happened then Would Vipsania still have wept By Pipers at your gates of dawn Whose tunes your secrets kept And Claudia, ever close to you By Jupiter’s right hand Sang Prayers to Optimus, Maximus When your blood was spilled on sand What happened to your Legions then Along that forest glade The ones you led into a trap Right through the German blade Now Augustus weeps at night, we hear He bangs his head in shame He screams to have his Legions back He cries and calls your name Varus, you defiled your fame You defiled your other wife; You used the Sword that won you names To take away your life

5 Jasper Elias

Had Teutoburg not happened then Would Romans still have wept By Pipers at your gates of dawn Whose tunes your secrets kept

The Infinite Dream 6

THE ELEMENT’S BALLAD

Sweet Gaea, Antheia Goddesses true The ones for whom the battles ensue Deep inside the darkness that servitude brings You carry a torch among most other things Antheia, the Springtime resembles your brow Whose flawless, fair skin will not age somehow Sweet Gaea, my Goddess I must take my leave The battle is ended, I pray thee, don’t grieve There will come a time when I shall be home When none of my battles will cause me to roam Then, Antheia, my princess we’re oceans apart You’re nowhere around me but inside my heart Dear Gaea, your voice will no longer be heard Save some in my memories and a few precious words Your fragrance, your aura, will burn with the sun To help me walk further and need be it, run Sweet Gaea, Antheia there will come a day When for you, my Goddess, I will no more pray For then, you’d have found your dwelling, your home A place where your heart lives, a rest from your roam.

7 Jasper Elias

A

journey that the various millions undergo in times of severe confl ict-personal and political; and the more than often realization of the ineffectuality of the individual in a mass situation: The Infinite Dream is an account of lives where one is more significant than the other, regardless of which side of a confl ict one happens to belong to. In that seemingly desperate attempt to win an escape from the Sovereign will our race unify and eventually succeed in search of that elusive dream?

Price 400