Part 2 of the ‘Final Words’ Anthology by Jonas Hyde.
Read Part 1 here: Adieu – (The final words of Gilles de Rais)
O’ This Life (The final words of Nikola Tesla)
by Jonas Hyde
O’ this life is now complete,
yet feel no sorrow on this day,
I beg you of this,
for I can now finally say,
that you O’ Lord I am prepared to meet.
These words I scribe so as to reminisce,
my life as it passes ‘fore my eyes,
the words people would speak,
shall meet darkened skies,
and the truth of my days would fall to the abyss.
But if it be fact you seek,
then my story I now offer to you,
and the name of Tesla shall ever reside,
a legend told from my ain point of view,
of years oft lived dim and bleak.
Always it was light I yearned to provide,
radiance which would push back the darkened stillness,
and tear down the fear that lived within,
the scared child of perpetual illness,
who no longer wished to run and hide.
Born amidst a brilliant storm is where my life would begin,
fitting it was as if part of a divine plan,
for in all my days I would receive brilliant flashes in my mind,
ideas which would fully span,
from thought to final skin.
Tho’ my youth began to unwind,
when my mother lost her life,
and for what would be the first but not only time,
I could not look past the torment and strife,
my lost soul I had to find.
So I shed my sin and grime,
and left my world of grief-ladened pain,
when I came across he who would be,
short term friend and fore’er bane,
for when I spoke of reason it was Edison who stole my rhyme.
So from him too I decided to flee,
and toiled in the mundane and perverse,
when I finally came to believe that our machinery could be driven by power,
obtainable at any point of the universe,
energy without a fee.
So at the turn of the years I started my work in the Tower,
and offered my mind to the world,
caring not for possessions or wealth,
and soon the fame of my designs e’er swirled,
as my inventions did society take and devour.
But soon expiring was my health,
coming closer with each passing breath,
both fearing and wanting not
my death
suddenly and cloaked in stealth.
It is my heart within which has slowly rot,
and alone here I shall meet my end,
final moments private and discreet,
before my soul shall finally transcend,
so goodbye o’ world – please don’t let me be forgot.
