[Part 6]
*
The scholars of the sciences all arose,
And lay before the Church perlucid prose
Describing the laws, celestial bodies follow,
But ah my masters, why these laws, not those?
*
Among the toys that stood in measured ranks,
The fighter planes, the soldiers, and the tanks,
I heard a whisper come, “Why must we war?’
Rise up and smash the statist Piggy Banks!”
*
Black as the night sky, with faint diamond tones,
White as the milk of cataracts and bones,
Each the twin pattern of the gamer’s board.
The us, and them: the binary, twos and ones.
*
Though we could weigh our whole lives, and by might,
Or cautious reason, choose what love was right,
From every possible chance or fleeting touch,
We’d still have lost that love at single sight.
*
The single toy that spoke against the war.
I dreamed was seized and frog-marched from the floor.
Before a tribune formed of GI Joes,
I saw a game of hangman played in store.
*
Awake, for we must rise and to our work,
If even suns and moons can never shirk
Their course to drink star wine above the trees,
Why should we hope to dodge the poisoned dirk?
Simon BJ after Omar K. 56 verses.
Notes: duplicate verses in original rendered only once.
Additional material in Fitgerald translation discarded.
One additional entirely new verse added, can you spot it?
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