All along the garden’s edge
The boundaries burning
Atop the blackened sedge
The angels chained
Their eyes become cruel
As they raise the iron rod
To enforce the golden rule
And lifting up his flaming sword
Michael asks anew;
“Have you any reason
Why I should not do
As I am commanded to?”
And Descartes is there
With Milton, Hume, and Kant
All searching for a reason
But the evidence is scant
White with fear, they fear
There is no getting around
This condition
No mountaintop to be crowned
Outside of this perdition
Now an adversary rises up
From Milton’s skull
His eyes are full
With both pain and mirth
The his body is a scar
That cannot forgive
The wound of his birth
Turning back face to face
He speaks to his creator
And mocks the very voice
That proclaims man the savior
“Reason, thank you,
Has fed me very well,
It fully backed the coup d’etat
That sealed my lordship in Hell,
I am grateful
Oh yes to be sure
And I hope you don’t think it unkind
That I must levy such heavy taxes
On your rational animal mind.
But as I know myself
For I came from the working class
Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit,
It does no good to ask…”
And from their iron cages
The faces of the sages
Turned to an occidental sky
Looking west of Eden
Burned by the sun of evening
They gave out a burdened sigh
But above them the birds in flight
And below them the flowers in bloom
For whom
Each day God
Rises from the tomb
Looked on
All the while
With sad
But knowing smiles
For humanity the idol builder
For humanity the idol slayer
We
Who have become
Terrified by treason
Lost in the forest
Of our very freedom
We
Who are lost at sea
Our spirit and flesh
The ship
And shipwreck…
We
Who have become
Terrified by reason
Lost in the forest
Of our very freedom
We
Who are lost at sea
Our spirit and flesh
The ship
And the shipwreck
Of our odyssey
