General (Vol. 1)

Jesus of All the Ages

  1. I see Him in the hall of tapestries,
    An enigmatic smile upon His face,
    Looking at Athenian allegories
    Of virtue and the triumph of disgrace:
    Above all soothsayers and sages,
    Jesus of all the ages.

  2. He scans the lake and hears the wind's dark note
    As all is set to meet the sudden night,
    Braces against the pitching of the boat
    Until His friends cannot conceal their fright:
    Calmer of everything that rages,
    Jesus of all the ages.

  3. He goes where dignity slips out of gear
    In shacks that cluster round satanic mills,
    Where degradation ceases to alarm
    Without an unkind word he cures all ills:
    Destroyer of all earthly cages,
    Jesus of all the ages.

  4. On some ethereal node we will discover
    Him taking a reading from a heavenly graph
    Greeting His interplanetary brother:
    More now than three in one; He starts to laugh:
    Author of all unwritten pages
    Jesus of all the ages.