Canto XVIII
Cantos above XVII are about the future. Here in XVIII, is the threshold
of what is presently becoming an inevitability. A die already cast, but
with outcome not wholly decided. And why we are "revisited".
I am Maldanus now, shepherd of the Hand of God,
Thing that gives life and Natural Order
Where else nothing of flowing substance would be
found.
Science and art to you are, at one, to look with
telescope at what is close...and microscope at
what is distant, the other...
At what is of no import, to give heed, while to
the very cradle of your life, spend nothing.
What brings me now?...and do I come with sword?
(Strange little details upon which to fasten.)
*Like the last time, when you asked if I love you.
Only enough to come again.
Hardly off your starboard, the work of my charges
readies the vast heaps.
Saturn's gossamer rings give them treatment by the sun.
The last needed to renew the worm life you've poisoned.
The question is "do you love yourself wisely?" Enough?...
To plant and grow harvest rather than profit from famine.
Only one truth can stand you well enough to matter:
THAT NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH MATTERS.
Copyright April 2001 James C. Horak
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