SIRIUS

                  SIRIUS

First star, last star, brightest star,

guides me, rides me through the night,

tells me of his favorite planet

where “love thy neighbor”

is not a commandment, but a way of life,

and there is no word for war.

“Where did we go wrong,” I inquire.

“From the very first, you,

speck of a minor star

at the tail end of one of billions of galaxies,

saw yourself as  center of the universe,

and you, not center but splinter,

punished those who tried to set you straight,

despite the life and light your Sun supplies,

painting your world in an infinity of colors,

limited only by a shortage of  names.

And when a lovely lad, who died so young,

exclaimed, ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever,’

we sang hallelujah; one of them has got it right.”

 “What can we do to be like you?”

“It’s too late for humanity;

the disease is far too deep to undo. 

But perhaps it’s not too late, my child,

for you, or for any human being

who really wants to make the change.”

         

Congratulations, you turned the page,

but let me give you some serious caveats

from the mouth of Cormac’s Judge:

            “Before man was, war was waiting for him….

              War endures because young men love it and old men love it in them……

              All children know that play is more honorable than work…..

              and the ultimate game is war.”

You see, war is in you too,

and to eradicate it

will require severe uprooting. 

You will have to put on hold

all beliefs and convictions,

abandoning the philosophy

that you are right

and they are wrong

as you begin again

from the nadir of nothingness,

from the ground zero of your soul.

                                  November/December 2009

Quotations from Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.