A TALE OF THREE MESSENGERS

 

                     I

 

A man awoke one day to find

That he had passed away in sleep

And stood within a court confined,

To answer for himself and weep.

 

“Now did you notice, my good sir,”

The Lord of Death breathed in his ear,

“The first of the Three Messengers

Who in each life to men appear?”

 

“Nay, Lord, I saw this person not,”

Replied the one who was deceased,

Confounded by his wrong conduct

Of thoughts and words and deeds.

 

“But saw you not, my good man,

An aged and a trembling wretch,

Bent over like a bridge’s span

And leaning on a gnarled staff—

 

“All youth and vigor drained and dimmed,

Teeth broken, gray or scanty hair,

Flesh wrinkled, blotched, with crippled limbs?”

“At this, Lord, I have stopped to stare.”

 

“And did it not occur to you,

Who should be wise enough to see,

‘I, too, am subject to old age,

So let me now do noble deeds’?”

 

“Such deeds, Lord, I have left aside,

In ignorance and negligence

Of my own body, speech, and mind.”

“As you have said, my savvy friend:

 

“And as befits your chosen path,

So will your compensation suit.

For knew you not those deeds would last

Until you had endured their fruits?”

 

 

 

                    II

 

“But saw you not, my good sir,”

The Lord of Death continued then,

“The second Divine Messenger

Who passes through the world of men?”

 

“Nay, Lord, I fear I saw him not,”

Replied the one who was deceased,

Confounded by his wrong conduct

Of thoughts and words and deeds.

 

“But saw you not, my good man,

A person who was sick with pain—

Who, lying on his cold bed pan,

Consumed with fever, strained,

 

“And then must needs be lifted up

While someone tended to his sores

And helped him hold his drinking cup?”

“Yea, I have seen this thing, my Lord.”

 

“And was it not grasped by your wit,

Which should be wise enough to see:

‘I, too, am subject to be sick,

So let me now do noble deeds’?”

 

“Lord, I have left such deeds aside,

In ignorance and negligence

Of my own body, speech, and mind.”

“As you have said, my savvy friend:

 

“And as befits your chosen path,

So will your compensation suit.

For knew you not those deeds would last

Until you had endured their fruits?

 

                    III

 

“But saw you not, my good sir,”

The Lord of Death continued then,

“The last of the Three Messengers

Who pass through this vain world of men?”

 

“Nay, Lord, I fear I saw him not,”

Replied the one who was deceased,

Confounded by his wrong conduct

Of thoughts and words and deeds.

 

“But saw you not, my good man,

The corpse of one who lately died:

His body swollen, pus filled, wan,

And covered with a swarm of flies—

 

“His mourners weeping at the call

Of grief, beside the funeral board—

Or none to mourn his death at all?”

“Yea, I have seen this thing, my Lord.”

 

“And did it not dawn in your mind,

Which should be wise enough to see:

‘I, too, shall one day have to die,

So let me now do noble deeds.’?”

 

“Such deeds, Lord, I have left aside,

In ignorance and negligence

Of my own body, speech, and mind.”

“As you have said, my savvy friend:

 

“And as befits your chosen path

So will your compensation suit.

For knew you not those deeds would last

Until you had endured their fruits?

 

Then after he examined him

Concerning this third messenger,

Death’s monarch said no more, but sent

For dogs of Hell that seized and tore

 

The lost soul with their claws and teeth—

Though not allowing him to die

Until they purged his evil deeds.

Shall this fate, then, be yours and mine?

 

 

AMERICA’S STONEHENGE

 

 The certainties attendant on the stones

Of world-renown that mark Salisbury Plain

Are shared by some concerning what remains

Of structures found in old New Hampshire’s grove—

Shared so much so, a New Age Druid tone

Transforms the setting when the Equinox

Arises at the points of certain rocks

Strategically arranged about the zone.

 

I squatted in a chamber underneath

The Hill of Mystery where oracles

Were from the wisdom of the hidden priests

Relayed by tube to sacrificial table—

Though what the people worshipped there, God knows:

That is, a God whose face could not be shown.

 

     IN THE WILDERNESS

  

When rambling in the East one day,

Conducted by a gentle breeze,

Yun Kiang espied Hung Mung, amazed,

Because the latter hopped and played,

Slapping his buttocks with such glee.

 

“O tell me, sir, just who are you?

Why are you doing this?” he cried.

Hung Mung looked up and answered, “Pooh!”

Yun Kiang said, “Is there gospel truth

Your antics have from me disguised?

 

“You see, I long to seize the Wind,

And harmonize the basic Six—

The Darkness, Light, the Yang, the Yin,

And Rain—all in myself to blend.

Don’t tease me with fantastic tricks!”

 

“I do not know! I do not know!”

Hung Mung just shook his head and sprang

Away into the reeds that blow

With harmonies of Rain that flow

In Light and Darkness, Yin and Yang.

 

Years afterward, when yet once more

Yun Kiang was rambling in the East,

Hung Mung he noticed as before,

And hastened to be taught his lore,

And laid his head down at his feet.

 

“O Heaven, do remember me!

Have you forgotten, Heaven?”

Hung Mung said, “Wandering listlessly,

I know not where or what I seek—

But you aspire to govern Man.”

 

Yun Kiang replied, “I too am tossed

About by aimless influence,

And yet the People follow close

Upon my heels; and since they press

About me, shall I lead them hence?”

 

“Do so, and you will be their bane!

Do nothing, and the world will be

Well guided, as you hold the reins

Preventing men from seeking gain

Beyond what their best Good beseems.”

 

“And what, O Heaven, is that Good?”

The Recluse answered, “Empty minds

And weakened wills; sufficient food;

The dearth of knowledge; being trued

To Nature’s stillness, and resigned.”

 

Yun Kiang said, “Heaven, you have taught

The meaning of your Way to one

Who all his life for it has sought—

Who now within its net is caught!”

He bowed twice to him, and was gone.

 

TOO MUCH BLUES

 

Too much freedom,

Too many choices;

Too much to heed

From too many voices.

 

Too much consciousness,

Too much thinking;

Too many hunches

And too many inklings.

 

Soon you lose touch:

Too much is too much.

 

Too many factories,

Too many plans;

Too much supply

And too much demand.

 

Too much to buy

And too much to sell;

Too many doors

With too many bells.

 

Who can you trust?

Too much is too much.

 

Too many applicants,

Too many jobs;

Too many options

For too many mobs.

 

Too many values,

Too many lifestyles;

Too many roads

Stretching too many miles.

 

Ashes and dust:

Too much is too much.

 

Too many visions,

Too many schemes;

Too many ways

And too many means.

 

Too many channels,

Too many clues;

Too much to gain

And too much to lose.

 

You gasp and clutch:

Too much is too much.

 

RICHARD THE THIRD’S HUMP            

  

You can step off the train at Penrith,

And the first thing that you see might be

The ruins of Strickland’s Tower--

Or the McDonalds’ golden arches besieging

The hungry ghosts in the castle’s keep,

Urging them to lay down their shields,

And get in line for a Happy Meal

Of flesh they need not see dismembered.

 

O Stalwart bastion against the Scottish raids!

The roots of bracken, feckless feet of tourists

Disintegrate the sandstone into red dust

That swirls about the advertising campaign

Squatting heavily upon our shoulders,

Like the hump of Richard the Third--

Leaving us to rehearse that role,

And exit the scene tragically.

 

CHRISTINA’S WORLD

  

He labored on that wintry hill for months,

And contemplated her in her pink dress:

Her crippled arms and hands against the grass,

Just like a faded lobster shell or conch

You might find on a beach somewhere. Her strength

Has ebbed forever from the useless legs

That drag behind her, trailing like the dregs

Drained back into the bottle from one’s mouth.

 

She never reaches home across the field

That mocks her with the world’s infirmity

With which desire claws and crawls to be,

Yet faints before a gulf that is too wide

To conquer. Framed against the ashen sky,

The farmhouse stares away from what she feels.

 

IMPEACH THE MOON

  

They were out to press charges

As soon as it appeared,

Waxing its way thru the turbulent airwaves.

 

But the Moon had no substance,

And was always changing:

They wanted to nip its growth in the bud,

Before it became all things to all men.

 

They accused it of stealing their sunlight,

Accused it of anything they could devise:

The tides were too low, or too high;

There were too many loonies out on the street;

Too many cars parked on Lovers’ Lane.

 

Any rumor was good enough

For the Special Prosecutor.

He pointed his finger at the Moon

And screamed, “High Crimes and Misdemeanors!”

 

There was hardly time enough

For them to put their case together.

They had to find or make up something

That would blind the billion eyes

That watched its phases with such wonder.

 

Yes, they needed a conviction,

Before the cursed thing slipped away

And disappeared beyond Reasonable Doubt—

And they would have to start all over again,

Investigating their revenge

In the unimpeachable dark of the Moon.