Our troops are now massed and readied upon the borders of Iraq. I'm not sure whether I still believe what I believed several months ago about the desirability of war, but I might as well post this in response to other literary sentiments about the war. It's just been one of those days. By the way, I have a little more respect for our troops than when I wrote this.

Bounded On All Sides

Begin with wordplay upon the Greek:
A strange realization of sight and sound;
Xenophany, Xenophony, Xenophon
And a long walk back from Euphrates.
Be it well with you when war drums
Are heard before Babylon the Great
And bombs blow the font of iniquity
Into the Second Death with the Beast.

Only defy history, do not try to defeat it
For time is all-knowing and surpassing
With every way you walk well-trod.
Yet, renew a creviced path for courage
And arrogance in ill-affording ardor.

There is emphasis here, for every word
Has meaning for the sake of human life
And every sound the promise of death.

Consider Eden and what it is on Earth,
(Although Heaven may have reclaimed it):
A barren desert between dusty towns
And yet from here is a part of our nature
That traveled overland in many wanders
And by sea through islands and almost
Islands until it embraced an old world
And sailed far across to Hesperia Nova.
It is ours and they are us and we are
All connected by this connectedness
Whose source is God or our delusions
Of divinity that now can be constrained
By glorious acts in Israel and Arabia.

Yet this is history, a well-trod path
A vicious circle, an intractable dualism
A blood feud and a war of vengeance.
Never is it for us to say that we are out
Of time or place that here is and now is,
But nothing else either past or future
May light our way that is not a way.

The odd joy of the past is in repetition,
A quickly past joy but repeated renews
And every new decision is one of hope
When you remember how badly it went
In ages past with better men than you.
Adam was a better man and Eve a woman
Of a hundred virtues in a perfect garden
And even Xenophon was more worthy
Of glory than anyone who will fight now.

What keeps us from the Pit and the Beast
Is that trifling hope that God is outside paths
But looks on in horror from time to time,
Still he hopes that we will get it right
And indeed I will do no less than God


Music: DJ Sammy etc.
ESA (20030220.1)