P O E T I C S

The Poetry of Michael Langston


(8) A VARIATION ON A THEME BY MOSES

   In the end, Man destroyed himself and
the earth.

 2  And the earth was empty, and without
life; and stillness was upon the face of
the dust.  And the spirit of Death moved
upon the face of all the world.

 3  And Man said, Let there be life: but
there  was  no life. And the evening and
the morning were the last day.

 4  And it happened that when Man had at
last  subdued the earth, and had brought
down  his  dominion  unto  every  living
creature,  there came  a time  when each
perished; even unto the last of them:

 5 Great whales, and every creature that
moveth,  which  the waters brought forth
abundantly;  grass,  and  herb  yielding
seed, and tree yielding fruit; fowl that
may  fly above  the  earth  in the  open
firmament  of heaven;  the beast  of the
earth,  and cattle; and every thing that
creepeth upon the earth:

 6  Till the  last had  passed, and  all
were  gone,  that only men and the rocks
of the ground should be left.

 7 And Man watched and comprehended not.

 8  And  Man said,  Let us make earth in
OUR  image,  after OUR likeness: and let
us  have  dominion over  the fish of the
sea,  and  over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and   over  every  creeping  thing  that
creepeth upon the earth.

 9  So  Man  created earth  in  his  own
image,  in  the image  of Man created he
it;  towns and  cities created  he them,
and  all  things that hath not life: and
every  nonliving  thing that moveth upon
the earth.

 10 But every LIVING thing was destroyed
which  was  upon the face of the ground,
both  man,  and cattle, and the creeping
things,  and the fowl of the heaven; and
they were destroyed from the earth.

 11  And  all flesh died that moved upon
the earth, and every man:

 12 All in whose nostrils was the breath
of  life,  of all  that was in the whole
land, died.  And nothing remained alive:
all they that were on the earth.


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