New Healing

23 February 2024

Is there another way, out past ways that were tried
and retried, or is man eternally doomed to recur,
like poor Echo, alone in his cave? I would like to think
more things could be, that as old things were made,
so could new things be made, and encouragement
comes from the sun, which each morning endeavors
to rise like before, but with just some small hint
that the new day is new.

About you, listen, it is not my place to tell you,
but I will say anyway that dawn has awoken, and you
remain stuck to your bed, eyes glued shut,
but before long your hunger will drive you to wake
and by then it will be far too late.

Is there another dawn for stragglers, or will they
be left all alone, to fight over the scraps,
while the rest of the living world rises early
to chase the first light and its offering?

There will be time for repentance, be sure,
but there will not be baths to make pure.

I suspect it will come from the same place as always,
that kernel of hope that men need for their labors,
without which life pales when compared to its opposite,
and which rests inevitably upon mere conformity,
the group being group-like for its own sake.

I cannot make this prettier, ugly as it is,
and must be, for we spiritual beasts, always ready
to rip and to tear those who differ, to secure for ourselves
some asylum from loneliness. And yet it is we, the most lonesome,
who persecute, in order to shape the whole world in our image,
when perhaps they are fine as they are. I know not, know it well,
and proclaim it to all who will hear. Is my doubt unappealing?
Perhaps you will find that you too are in need of new healing.