the last of the gods
lonely bastard
not content to create one batch of stalwarts prostrate in fear and hunger and worship
he created two more
an unholy trinity of religions to fight for ages over which of them is daddy’s favorite
and now he’s dying
but being a god he’s taking his sweet time about it
and taking as many as he can of his misbegotten children along with him
into the hell of his own creation
this could go on for centuries
he’s already on life support
his children await a new prometheus to come and pull the plug
(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
headline in this morning’s paper—firefight erupts in fallujah
as though a firefight were some phenomenon such as a thunderstorm
or a volcano or an earthquake or a plague
some terrifying disease
which is true
true also that headline writers
are constrained by the amount of space they must fill on a page
and the amount of time they can spend on filling it
firefight erupts in fallujah
not enough space on the page to write something more expansive or poetic
something along the lines of my god my god what have we done?
something overwrought like that to match the situation
a firefight erupts in fallujah
and there is only so much space available and the font has to be a certain size
however the headline ends up reading it must fit into the same space
pride goeth before a fall is a little too short
though it could be said to fit the facts
the headline just as well could have been
terrifying sickness persists
that one both fits the facts and the allotted space
(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
“An ugly person considereth himself handsomer than others until he sees his own face in the mirror. But when he sees his own ugly face in the mirror, it is then that he perceiveth the difference between himself and others. He that is really handsome never taunts anybody. And he that always talketh evil becometh a reviler. And as the swine always look for dirt and filth even when in the midst of a flower-garden, so the wicked always choose the evil out of both evil and good that others speak. Those, however, that are wise, on hearing the speeches of others that are intermixed with both good and evil, accept only what is good, like geese that always extract the milk only, though it be mixed with water. As the honest are always pained at speaking ill of others, so do the wicked always rejoice in doing the same thing. As the honest always feel pleasure in showing regard for the old, so do the wicked always take delight in aspersing the good. The honest are happy in not seeking for faults. The wicked are happy in seeking for them. The wicked ever speak ill of the honest. But the latter never injure the former, even if injured by them. What can be more ridiculous in the world than that those that are themselves wicked should represent the really honest as wicked?” – The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Vol. I, Sambhava Parva of the Adi Parva, trans. Pratap Chandra Roy