Friday, December 13, 2013

4833. IS THIS EYE OPEN? (Prudentius)

IS THIS EYE OPEN?
(Prudentius/Job)
Wise motion spleens the new day.
Already, people are talking  -  it is
soon to be once more the shortest day.
No digressions needed  -  and besides, 
on that day there is no time. 'There
was a man in the land of Uz.'
-
I don't know about this idea of bliss  -  
why cave? Why give in? This is Job : 'the
Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.' T'was
Satan killed Job's children, and lambs and
cows and servants? No, it was God. Job tears
his robe and shakes his head. Is this eye open?
 'Blessed be the name of the Lord.'
-
Then it all goes to him  -  his skin boils up, the
worms, the clods of dust. 'My life is wind.' As he
sits down in a pile of ashes his wife is heard to say :
'Give up. It's over.  Curse ye God and die.'
-
Now it is me  -  I look out, curling pure color, and
cursing line and form. In my own hands are Eliphaz
and Bildad and Zophar too  -  the three wise men 
are negated by these three blundering oafs. It doesn't
 matter what one does  -  this world makes no moral sense.
'Miserable comforters are ye all. I am a brother to dragons.'
-
(We set our souls ablaze. Such sorrow passes)...
Sometimes we would teach, sometimes we would learn,
of one another. Docere aliquid invicem aut discere ab invicem.

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