The Scarlet Letter
Volume VI, Number 2 | September 2001
Born Every Minute
By Paradoxos Alpha, Lodgemaster

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

My attempts at some sort of prose regarding the events of September 11 have gone nowhere. So I instead offer a reflection in verse. The meter is that of J.S. Bach’s Passion Chorale, which Paul Simon used for his “American Tune.” The latter lyric is also highly apposite to current events—maybe even moreso than mine.

Fire struck empire from the sky
With suicidal zeal.
Television’s baleful eye
Does not at all reveal,
Nor excuses, nor explains
The reason of these scenes:
Blind Samson flew the airplanes
Against us Philistines.

We hear the counts with horror;
Our senses ache and scar
With each infinite number
That divides star from star.
For them the dissolution;
For us the aimless curse.
And every fine solution
Can only make things worse.

So workers pick the rubble,
While pundits play the crowds,
As our danger and trouble
Gather foreboding clouds.
God damn the angry Aeon!
Must blood more blood beget?
Can those who would be free on
Earth, keep their freedoms yet?

On every side in lines of flame
The pentagram still burns:
The human seal, the holy name,
To which our anguish turns.
With strength and mercy balanced
In the fierce lust of your pride,
Take heart, abide in your own will,
Do not be turned aside.

Love is the law, love under will.

In service to Our Lady and her work of wickedness,

Paradoxos Alpha

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