greece
Ill-tempered he may have been,
Adept at frightening too,
Zeus had form in this regard,
Transformed himself to snatch
Young Ganymede the shepherd
From his innocent pasture;
He could get away with that
Because he was Zeus after all
And gods are not subject to
The rules that make bourgeois life
So lacking in salience.
He found a much better use
For eagles, sent one from east
And one from west, they flew high
Until at length their dizzy flight
Converged; that marked the centre
Of the world, its true navel,
And the people placed a stone
On that exact spot, high above
The plains below Parnassus;
This was Delphi, a city
To which the known world then came,
To marvel at the temple
Where Apollo was worshipped,
To ask questions that could not
Be answered, other than in
Hexameters that none could
Make much sense of, which kept
The oracle’s reputation
In high regard—a reply
That answers nothing will do
If you do not really
Want to know what the future
Holds, but feel you have to ask.
The passive tourists wander
Past the fallen stones and think
What they’d ask the oracle:
Does he love me as I love him?
Will she consent to be my wife?
Will I ever get the job
I’ve always wanted, and will
My name be up in lights?
Is it better to be poor
And contented, or be rich
And surrounded by flatterers
Who love you for what you’ve got?
Big questions, to which the reply
Is Possibly, or maybe not,
But in the meantime make the most
Of what you don’t know, the wise
Do not always say what they know,
Remember that, forget the rest.