With neither fallen hero
Nor the fleeing foe, nor
With careful stratagem and
Expert heraldry,
Was my world laid bare,
But by by God's Plan and
Under the watchful eye
Of the Queen of Heaven.
Call it Destiny,
Or call it what you will,
A movement in the matter stream
Was liberating iron from ice
To set it galloping at ever-heightened pace
Through some far stretch of starry skies.
If a transport or dream could make us see it,
No outcome would change, why would we flee it?
Two playmates, we
Thought to know each other
Like children in the garden.
Because my heart was full,
I saw my sphere as this planet
Abundant with mirth --
Neither floating on Air
Nor tied down to Earth.
But suddenly all eyes turned heavenward
With youthful fascination at the
Pretty lights that flickered there.
Our innocence knew no such phenomena,
And of its consequence we were wholly unaware.
This mass of mineral ambled on its steady course,
Every second and for aeons tumbling with yet greater speed
Stares lavished on this sparkle made none its portent heed.
Meanwhile, we worked, we played,
We saw our lives destroyed and fortunes made
Completely independent of exploding stars and divine rage,
Thumbs up, thumbs down, the nuances of fate were turning
On fashion, clothes and art, our social rank and grade,
What made us fat or happy, what made us win our games.
And while the two of us were laughing, immune to such affairs,
Our moods turned somber, our views became so moribund.
The theoreticians wasted time, the pundits explained,
The talking heads talked, and comfort drained from our faces.
No marketeer could make a deal, no diplomat could negotiate,
The glimmering rock that tumbled toward us was not dissuaded.
With no disease to treat the doctors administered from habit,
The custom of each one was to profess a trade, to try a trick,
But as each days hopes dissolved into useless speculation
While the course of the meteorite remained the same.
So you and I went through the motions, just like everyone else,
Our only fault was helplessness that made our kindness dissipate,
Joy and justice were broken furniture behind which loyalty was lost,
The waning moon of virtue sold as a slave to an uncertain tomorrow.
Tremulous smiles danced a short leitmotif across our lips,
A slight pretense that was prelude to the dirge of sorrow.
Our hobbled dreams strained vainly without the chance of coming true,
And what was warm pink sweetness darkened to a dull metallic blue.
With sense of duty and bravado were our troops arrayed to ease our minds,
While fiery afterthought was launched from horrifying machines.
The looming figure filled the sky in alternating spells of dark and light,
With the magnitude of canyons upside-down that we had no way to fight.
The Hell that had forged an alloy of awful beauty sloughed off its chaff
To sear the landscape, and evaporate every piece save one
Whose splinter, traversing galaxies, burrowed into my soul.
Then, with far less effort, you crushed me.
