La Tempête
Perhaps
the gods do set down
thousands of us
for the same purpose
like the nine ducklings
of which only four are left
to ensure that at least
one messenger
makes it through the battlefield
with their precious message
intact
my purpose is to
argue again
that you are here
to be a revelation
that your sacred fire
the intelligence in your hands
is the last seed
which by some miracle
you have guarded
in the storehouse
until it was needed
and that it cannot be found
anywhere else
you are the agitator
that comes into the orchard
to shake the fruit
down from the trees
where our complacency hangs
round and over-ripe
waiting for the storm.
La Tempête by Pierre-Auguste Cot, 1880.
