Man Against the Sky: A Book of Poems

<h2> Cassandra </h2> <p>I heard one who said: "Verily,<br/> What word have I for children here?<br/> Your Dollar is your only Word,<br/> The wrath of it your only fear.<br/> <br/> "You build it altars tall enough<br/> To make you see, but you are blind;<br/> You cannot leave it long enough<br/> To look before you or behind.<br/> <br/> "When Reason beckons you to pause,<br/> You laugh and say that you know best;<br/> But what it is you know, you keep<br/> As dark as ingots in a chest.<br/> <br/> "You laugh and answer, 'We are young;<br/> O leave us now, and let us grow.'&mdash;<br/> Not asking how much more of this<br/> Will Time endure or Fate bestow.<br/> <br/> "Because a few complacent years<br/> Have made your peril of your pride,<br/> Think you that you are to go on<br/> Forever pampered and untried?<br/> <br/> "What lost eclipse of history,<br/> What bivouac of the marching stars,<br/> Has given the sign for you to see<br/> Millenniums and last great wars?<br/> <br/> "What unrecorded overthrow<br/> Of all the world has ever known,<br/> Or ever been, has made itself<br/> So plain to you, and you alone?<br/> <br/> "Your Dollar, Dove and Eagle make<br/> A Trinity that even you<br/> Rate higher than you rate yourselves;<br/> It pays, it flatters, and it's new.<br/> <br/> "And though your very flesh and blood<br/> Be what your Eagle eats and drinks,<br/> You'll praise him for the best of birds,<br/> Not knowing what the Eagle thinks.<br/> <br/> "The power is yours, but not the sight;<br/> You see not upon what you tread;<br/> You have the ages for your guide,<br/> But not the wisdom to be led.<br/> <br/> "Think you to tread forever down<br/> The merciless old verities?<br/> And are you never to have eyes<br/> To see the world for what it is?<br/> <br/> "Are you to pay for what you have<br/> With all you are?"&mdash;No other word<br/> We caught, but with a laughing crowd<br/> Moved on. None heeded, and few heard.<br/></p> <p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"></SPAN></p> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />