Descent to Hell

                                                             

Descent to Hell

   When the drone incinerates the wedding

The State issues apologies:

And when the terrorist

Rips off limbs

He takes eye for eye

Falsifying Jesus,

But proves that all is not well

In Jesus's Denmark.

I do not understand these Americans.

There is no restraint, no rule.

They take interest, make sex only pleasure,

Then tell others how to live.

The news-anchor feigns surprise

That war costs innocence, and is unpopular.

Her salary depends

On defending the indefensible.

The trick is easy:

To destroy an enemy

Invite him to destroy himself,

Use his vanity against him.

In the long-run

None of us are here for long,

And Empire is as flimsy

As the class-war it incites.

Patience, not bombs, wins this game:

So patience: bombers of weddings and of streets,

The will to dominate cannot out-live

The murder of the bride and groom.

For never was there a marriage-made-in-heaven

Like that between Empire and its malcontents.

Therefore prepare the wedding-feast:

Wolves on baited-bears.

Ignore the Senators snorting imbecilities,

Demanding the surrender of planets---

The glory they feel is in their silk-socks

And the beaten-leather of their Burberry shoes.

Hear the voice of Virgil!

As he observes the beggar in a shredded-tunic,

Noting his beatific gaze

Searching for a grave, and crying:

Facilis descendus Averno

Noctes atque dies 

Ianua atri Ditis patet:

But not for long.

To return to the upper-air

When crimes prevent regress,

Hoc est opus, hic labor,

Though not for long.

For the one who has nothing to lose

Can only gain over the gainer---

When return is Herculean labor,

Even if not for long.

                                                                                  Will Morgan

                                                                                   April 22, 2013