Eyes: But on the swell of public concern, who will arraign
The mass communications
That created the global village, predicted the hurricane,
By a wavelength saved whole nations?
Head: What sees the soul-deep viewer in the glass eye
That sees not with his leaden sight,¹
But swims and darts around the global misery
And takes from politicians a sound-bite?
Eyes: Teachers call it an instructive medium, for the word
Can inspire, handmaid to the image,
When letters aren’t pressed to young hearts, by the prospect stirred
More by deeds than verbiage.
Head: Yet not captives of the imageable spider nor mayflies ², but free words
Of eternal thought are the Arched
Gate to understanding the values of our culture afterwards
And watering those that are parched.
Eyes: Does the atlas³, pupating as you into scepticism, not pine -
As it fleshes its pen and presumption,
As the wings of plain living and frugality harden in the sunshine -
For the caterpillar years of consumption?
Head: The caterpillar’s landscape was defined by need, sprung
From the nature of its specialization,
But the human adult’s by images of consumption, as a loose tongue
Blossoms into man-size defoliation.