Reynolds & Midway 62

°

O Lord? For we cannot decide—wait. What?

< that sh*t annoys me, for it's everywhere,

that forum where our fingers flew, elsewhere,

all social media, medium? Once we tried

to learn some Latin, as we did whan young

and poring over Dante: bought a book—

Italian/English dictionary—in

the naive hope we'd learn enough to grok

the lefthand page, but ended up in tears.

^That much is true, God bless my infant spirit,

gifted? but ignorant of that small voice

I heard at all times. < That is also true,

you, reader, ages hence, if ought there be,

so mark it down. ¶ I happen on, in books

I relishd whan in high school, pages bent,

passages marked with this*, or bracketed,

that tell my older & much wiser spirit

that he was listening than, tho' far more oft'

his mind wld wander while his eyes criss-crossd,

likely to girls who struck his boyish fancy,

and thus to secret thoughts we still think up

but won't relate—for what wld be the point—

the point!  as Julian of Norwich sd

was God, and we believe, the Genesis,

the Alpha & Omega: One wee point,

from wich that still small voice. Around it, what?

Nothing. But what is nothing? Nothing naughts

itself, a letterd signal, utterance

so trivial it wastes the time it takes

to speak or write it. < All of that was known

in ancient times, for there is nothing new—

(aha! ) Then, Lord, what would You have us do?°

Repeat in newer fashion, make again

in other form what has been sd & sd

and sd again? Repeat, reiterate,

—the opening of the throat— the primal ॐ ,

the aum of consciousness? No, Midway. Work

is what we're here for, for there's virtue in't,

as Robert may have written: not that Robt

of whom we speak at times whan steepd in sin,

but one that was committed to the Word

in heart & mind, so gifted he cld spin

1,000 lines as we might spin a sonnet;

late-bloomer, who left home at 34,

the lucky son of loving parents. Love,

the message of our Lord, Who knew the Word

and was the Word in flesh, Who walkd the world

and gave us truth in every word He spoke,

Who taught the rich & poor, the young & old,

crippled & kings, lectors & lepers, all

who stoppd and gave an ear. Now listen—

7.30.15