FAUST UNDER WATER

J. T. BLEU

SAPPHO

Vergebens, dass ihe ringsum wissenshaftlich schweift, einjeder lernt nur,

was er lernen kann.

(It is in vain that you range around from science to science: each man learns only what he can learn.)

----Faust

Someone told you that they could:

                guarantee eternity

                but your rights are never implicit in denial;

                forever is not to be

                for every tomorrow

                you lose today

                for every sin

                you must pay

                to have it wrapped and delivered

                around the world;

                all is truth until it

                chokes the illusion

                who will pick it up then?

Go home

And like the French

After the revolution

when the legislature

offers you

a Faustian compact

You may marvel

At the neat and fine print

                sold for a penny

                all your rights and assimilation

                 

This is how a liberal culture

French kisses

And this is how the obstacles of quotas

                and bile

                become public

                but we remain private creatures

                underwater swimming

                to Bohemia (where the fictional shore affords us sanctuary)

                but not to Poland

                where we were put to the question

                is there any doubt?

                we would thrive?

                submerged like a dolphin?

What fish or amphibian can breathe such medieval air

And bacteria

                of the ghetto and survive?

But we are unimpeded mammals

Who farm the good Earth

Only to reap a harvest

Of blood when all we want to do is perform

Faust underwater.