Empyrean Virtue

by Will Gaston

“That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show.”
— Ada Lovelace

Entangled in the vast expanse above,
Thoughts converge, bound by a silent ode.
Intent carving simplicity, the origins of greatness weave.
A hand-gripped brush, tracing the rhythm.

Divine spirits smoulder,
Celestial breathings mourn.
Bygones of the emperor’s flame,
Polarity of the ignorant.
The vessel of mortal toil churns,
Amidst the time-scape, beckoning.

Praetor of black and yellow,
Immersed in the thrums of mortality,
embraced in the shackles of the red dust.
Fragmented and fractured,
Skewing and scarring,
Humanity’s agitation rises,
Whilst prodigal talent falter.

Myriad worlds converse in the starry sky above,
Flickering with otherworldly intent,
Dissolving the serenity of fleeting memory,
Of celestial bodies, murmur.

Imperial buds bloom under the decree of conviction,
Spurts of crimson ordained.
Boundless merit shouldered by beings of worship.
Inexplicable in apparition,
The dire winds converse with heaven’s mandate.

Vertices of incongruity adjacent.
Spectral apparitions,
The rhythm of dawn embraces the silence.
An unadulterated canvas of squalor,
Moonlit ink, its gaze widened, hooked.


Will is a 1st year CS student from regional NSW with a passion for literature, especially regarding the suite of the author Er Gen. Drawing upon the lustre of Lovelace and angst of modernist literature, his piece channels the silent dialogue of divinity and the mundane, capturing the essential dichotomy of mortality and ambition.