The New Frontier

02 August 2022

"It is and it is not, and, therefore, is"
    - Wallace Stevens, A Primitive Like an Orb

What have we learned in seventy years?
What are the lessons of that war
which lately ripped both Europe and Asia
to pieces, that broke our faith, but left us here?
If God is dead, what takes his place?
Or must the place itself change, into
something open, free for exploration, undefined?
It is, is not, and therefore is,
just like ourselves, our lives, and our surrounding aura.
Who would dare to pin things down again?
Yet how could beasts like us survive
without restraint and limitation?
We have known the pain of man and his machines
on heaven's throne, have suffered Cromwell's vengeful reign
for nigh four centuries. This war (the one succeeding,
recall, the one to end all wars) is but the climax
of the heavenly interregnum. But what person
dares to sit on such a throne again?
Are we so human? Human still, despite our deepest cravings,
loyal subjects to an absent king. Why can't we let God rest in peace?
We hear the wind disturb the leaves, those covering his grave.
It's us, the ones you chose to save,
and then abandoned to the formless blur,
which is, is not, and therefore is.
Let's on with it, then, to the new frontier,
where our longings are answered more plainly
and with less fear.