Recycled Poetry

REQUIEM FOR THE CHILDREN OF A GOD NOW DEAD
Like tides, theories wax and wane; funeral
one leads to rise of others. Tangential
hypotheses tumble consequential
to debunking of dependant theora,
which in turn belie once-golden data,
and follows new empirical versions
of what was thought before. Still the questions
proliferate. A house one brick short imperfect?
Or one extra? But if it shelter gives
in a treacherous land where danger lives
alongside peace? Of function grown to form,
is this perfections’ measure? How conform
to standards unwritten, unstated? How
judge sans law, sans referent? Why allow
we precedents on grounds uncommon? From
here to there: eternity. Freedom
a mere ideal, yet sans its hope, what hope?
Meritocracy is a slipp’ry slope
of privilege built on inequality
of birth’s and life’s accidents as surely
as Aristocracy’s deposed kingdom.

 

David M Pitchford

{recycled from “Couplets for Alexander”}