It should be noted that I describe ideals in this poem, not all of which are practical for the present moment. However, I long for a Star Trek-like society (admittedly one more friendly towards spirituality) and we'll never walk those thousand miles unless we keep taking steps in that direction.
~*~*~*~*~
Hvitakrist
they called him
Not
because of pale skin
Though
we all go a few
shades
lighter at death
Indeed,
they referred to his death
To
his choice not to fight back
To
see him as a weak god
Killed
with nails
While
theirs held a hammer
Was
he a coward, they ask?
Or
did he just lose the fight?
For
why would someone
not
fight death?
Yet
we all die. We all fight lost battles.
The
gods of Ragnarok
Are
no strangers to the concept.
What
if this was less of a battle
And
more of a riddle?
We
fight groups outside our own
Believing
that it makes our group
More
likely to survive
In
a world with limited resources.
But
in the end, no groups survive.
A
handful of humans and gods,
the
myths say...
But
that is only from Ragnarok.
There
are other battles
And
the Norns
Will
cut the threads on us all.
Time.
Nature. Fate.
The
debris of a supernova
Will
bury us all in fire and ice
And
someday return us
To
the stardust
From
which we came,
Our
elements bursting out of suns
Like
blood and bone
From
the head of Ymir.
No
competition there!
None
survive!
It
all cools, the universe ends
Sucked
into black holes
To
pinpoints. To new universes!
Which
burst forth with life again!
So
there was a trick - life survives.
Life
tries again.
Just
enough seems encoded
Into
the wyrd fabric of reality itself...
But
not these small tribes.
Not
these petty disputes.
What
do imploding galaxies care
For
wars started over skin pigment,
Nose
bones, books, or borders?
For
food for creatures
Whose
very fossils have melted
And
even the last bit of oil
Was
burnt by the sun?
How
much of this can survive?
How
much of the wyrd can we warp?
Can
we weave in enough love
To
cause ripples in the fabric of time?
To
echo in some Superconscious
In
some other place,
Some
other world?
Can
we survive past the borders
Drawn
by humans on the earth
And
instead of borders
Just
have bonds
Tying
one to another
So
that we don't let go
As
the universe flings us
Into
the night sky?
Millions
of miles a second
We
hurl through space
Faster
than Thor's hammer thrown.
Hospitality
wasn't about
Who
you liked,
Or
even knew,
It
was about setting aside disputes
When
the winter winds howled
To
sort out in spring
When
the larger danger was past
Because
you yourself would not wish
To
be left in the cold if it was you
Knocking
on some stranger's door.
This
isn't hospitality,
It
is a lock
Saying
I don't care if they die
Or
starve
Or
get beaten by those who
Are
supposed to enforce Law
Even
if they did no wrong.
Not
my family? Not my problem.
But
what if it was Rig?
Is
this why you objected
To
seeing Heimdallr with dark skin
Even
in a different setting
Unrelated
to your cosmic stories?
For
if there is one thing you know
It's
that doors should always
Be
open to the gods -
But
Yggdrasil forbid
they
wear a face you don't like!
How
ridiculous.
How
trivial.
How
tiny.
How
small.
When
our dust
is
all in the same cloud
after
the worlds end?
No,
you never took an oath
To
the little blue dot
(Unless
you oathed yourself to Jord)
But
if you did a landtaking
And
staked out the borders of home
Did
the Landvaettir not tell you,
Did
the elves dare not whisper,
That
you are merely riding
On
the back of a Heavenly Body
That
someday might collide
With
other galaxies, other worlds?
We
love to form order from chaos
But
look around - the world is both.
Our
ancestors loved order
Because
they knew chaos too well
But
now we assume
That
Nature herself
Obeys
our petty rules
And
closed systems of growth.
Migratory
birds
do
not know our borders -
And
we are arrogant enough
To
assume they should!
We
pour chemicals on crops
Without
thinking about evaporation,
Or
run off, or rain, or streams.
We
think we can bomb our neighbors
And
the radiation will never reach us.
Nothing
is as simple
As
our minds make it
So
is it really order you are after
Or
ignorance of complexity?
Or
- more accurately -
Do
you demand
A
world you can
Control?
You
can't even control
The
moment of your death!
So
you have the audacity
To
try to control
The
moment of someone else's?!
We
are all on this boat.
We
are all on this earth.
We
hurl through seas
Of
space and time.
We
live, or drown, together.
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