Enlightenment
Sed sicut scriptum est quod oculus non vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascendit quae praeparavit Deus his qui diligunt illum.
- 1 Corinthians 2:9
Reveille, Reveille! The heralds of eternal daylight Flip off circuit breakers, flooding Forth electric erudition, shocking Suns into the skies, slinging Melancholic moons beneath the earth: Aeterna lux, clamantis vox, A far cry ringing newly Out across capacious plains. Among rough-hewn, rejected stones Old men, age-worn, arthritic, squirm Pathetic in receding shade, Bereft of novel revelation. (Shall they never see Salvation?) Lots cast for their ragged cloaks, Young, bitter soldiers shuffle off Trapped in totemic dispensations, Idly clutching ancient signs: Blunt characters of contradiction, Blinding eyes in blank revision. Thy dwelling place is here; We have discovered it at last. We have dismantled tabernacles, Lusting after all their secrets. We have strewn the hollow, brittle hosts Concussed upon the anesthetic sands. We do not fear; our lives are pure. We have declared our modern wisdom: Godliness Is next to cleanliness; this filth Is not the Promised Land; It cannot be. Thy holy city Is a desert; Zion Is a wasteland. There is nothing for us here. (There was nothing for them there.)
—Richard Rodriguez
Richard J. Rodriguez is a graduate of Williams College and the
University of Cambridge. He is currently studying for a medical degree.
