There are two cities on earth Divided by time and kindness And at the centre of their field Is a king who sits in silence About him move the reapers Drawing in the living grain Goodness or the void deceit That human life advances On the edges of this world Just beyond the known blue rim Are mortal doubt and anxiety Glittering with so much disbelief In one city there is despair Meaningless desolation Where sickles of severe abuse Cut and harvest emptiness Sometimes moral predators Destroy us in the night When ambushed by cruelty We are wrecked by extreme contempt In another city there is judgement Where a palpable soul is weighed And the words our tongues exchange Are assessed for generosity Beyond the urban walls there is A worn green altar on a plain Where smoke is offered to the sky And blood poured on the stones There are the unwritten stars Calculating every hour Few who walk this level world Observe their silence and precision There are brides grooms and lovers Where the youthful go apart To meet indelibly and completely Offering all they might possess There are songs of the universe That recall for us a truth Words forsaken in our effort When we only pursue ourselves There are small lakes and rivers Running down toward a coast And on the hills are quick hawks Who play upon a thin grey air There are vineyards and groves And orchards where boys and girls Laugh among the grassy shadow Lightly clothed with future promise Just like a dancing floor all this Was prepared without a single wound Perfectly beautiful and still Where years are made immobile Although we see the movement Are impelled by human currency Yet nothing happens or can change In the eyes of this ardent king
From Song of the Republic by Kevin McGrath (Houston, Texas: Saint Julian Press, 2020). Reprinted with the kind permission of the author.