A HERO’S VERSE

When I am rested at six foot below,

And in vacuous ambience

Of frozen body, mind and soul,

Spirit divined transcends.

I cannot twitch to my assailer’s blow

When darkness in its weight and thickened moist,

Is all my shut gaze can dote,

And uncertainty of my spirit’s final host;

Either to demon’s or angel’s abode,

To hell’s heat or the beaut of heaven’s summer frost.

My judgment on earth must be told.

My secret sins and laurel’s earned.

My humble pride and precepts held high and bold;

Tell all my cowardice and have my folly penned.

Do not spare my good, nor my evil withhold.

Ink the tale of my besotted lover’s chase,

Of the many dames I lost my manners for;

Let them know I ran a mugu lover’s race,

That I suffered love, my Achilles’ flaw.

But Grace did save me from Solomon’s fate.

Dress my eulogy in words of wisdom.

As I suffered of Solomon’s vile, so did I also mirth in his rare bliss.

Read the scrolls from my hidden tome,

Tell my words exact as I had the vision seen.

May those fecund hours not waste with me in this tomb.

Tell the world of my strong values led,

The visions and love I dearly held,

The darkness and light that warred for who would lead my mind.

Do not hide the misery that made me bled.

Neither the hate and truth that had me fled.

Good friends of mine.

While we eat and merry in wine,

Note my every frown and smile,

Write me a heroes verse when we no longer dine,

Share your old pal’s gold, ore and sand, when he is spent of life’s given time.

• Johannes Tobi