Originally posted 7/12/2010; original title, “Hymn For No Purpose.”

In your first moment
of God
there were commands

GATHER WITHIN YOU ALL THAT CAN BE SPOKEN
CONTAIN ALL THAT IS IMAGINABLE
ONE DAY YOU MUST GIVE IT ALL BACK TO ME

How far you’ve fallen behind
in answering
that urging

Consider the gospel of Bacteria
suited to living anywhere on or under Earth
What could they teach you

The white bloom on your tongue
embodies a colony of unspeakable beauty
Within that paste they know just who they are

When slime molds crown
they are the exalted seat of Paradise
forging their future from wreck

It is time now
to lie down and decay
At last you are the perfection of Acolyte

Though you think you failed
the God
you always denied

in favor of 
One given to you
who already had all the answers

Who told them to you
Drilled you on them
Locked you into a box of their dust

Though you think now
you did not serve
the first One well

rest well knowing
you were perfect
and honorable to the end

for you have learned
how one thing
follows the other

and now you smile
as in death
you give the other life