UDEME RALPH

         “As you say,” Gordon said. “I feel we need to make good use of this opportunity, however, for none of us ever believed that we would be allowed into your abode. We feel honored to sit before you this day. Please, if there is a mystery we must first unveil, it is you. Tell us more about yourself. The last time some visiting emperors inquired from me useful information about you, I was dumbfounded. Was Tamac truly your father? Had you an encounter with supernatural powers when you were but twenty four years of age? Did you receive a vision from God to relocate to this place? Please, we want to hear these things from your own mouth.”      “Questions upon questions. But these are the last sort that I expected from you today. Still, I will provide answers. You know me as Theophilus Tamac, a once philosophical man who was made insane by inexplicable realities. Yes, I know that is how you see it. And yes, my name is Theophilus Tamac, but...

It comes at dawn, And grows with the sun, It laughs and sprawls And walks from court to court Jack of all trade, master of none Passing, emitting dread and gloom Dancing to unheard cosmic tunes Until its pride falls at noon For a while it staggers about, To east, west, north and south, Until at last eastward it crawls Beating its bearers’ little feats Straddling nations and tongues Ruling the woods with its murk Obstinate, lawless, and weird, Through thorns and thistles wades A mystery lying upon the ground A voiceless confounder of throngs Today a man, tomorrow a brute This hour by Bethsaida’s Pool Inert, static, drained of strength A moment passes, at byways of haste The day quickly fades and glories wane, And the dark man dies away to rise again.

After this and after that After labour and strife, The odds and pains of life The dreams of our little hearts These little lights of ours When finally blown down After we’ve breathed our last, And brutes devour our scalps. After life, after men and earth, When none of these remain, After learning, knowing and teaching, When reading ends and writing ceases After history, and law, and math, And theories and latitudes on maps, When planes and birds no longer soar From east to west, and north to south. When everything fades: All gone from view When sound and vision fails And this sand and dust, like dew Ascends lofty heights of no return Our bones cracked and crunched Our world blown up and burnt What will be left untouched? When all is said and done, When the battle of life is fought Whether won or lost We will meet at yonder’s post. To do things never done And sing songs never sung In strange new worlds Where suns ...