Hubris

Hubris

Constant and unswerving:

Unaltered by caprice,
Unaffected by the inconvenience
Of others' truths.
White-knuckled, clinging
To all the me that shan't
Have changed since
Change was first conceived:
     Bitten.

Refund to me the days of yore,

Of lore, when North was starred,
The universe earth-centered
And Christ was sinless,
And right was written
On scrolls or tablets
Or parchment or cave walls:
Shadows cast by conquered fire:
     Words.

Truth made rule   

By Egyptians or Jews, or
By Greeks or Romans, or
By Aztecs or Mayans, or
By French or Americans, or
By Arab Springers:
By God's own hand
Codified in wisdom:
     Law.

In unity I fought

Against all assaults,
Against the world,
Against usurpful progress:
Against Communism,
Against Socialism,
Against tyranny afar,
Against myself:
     War.

And for, I fought,

Unalterable me, truth-imbued
At the cosmos' conception:

Before I teamed with Stalin
    Against Hitler and Tojo
Before I made three-fifth'd men
     Whole, invested souls,
Before I heard the liturgy in Latin,
      Against pre-uttered vulgate,
Before I made Earth flat,
     Against the merciless horizon,
Before I burned the Alexandrian library,
     Against demonic lies,
Before I spied the heavens,
     Against unmagnified nearness,
Before I separated day from night
     Against the stagnant backdrop
         Of the unborn
               universe.
 
Before I  voted for it,
     Before I  voted against it.

Before I was Yaweh
Before I was Adam
Before I was Moses
Before I was Jesus
Before I was Muhammad
Before I was Alexander
Before I was Galileo
Before I was Newton
Before I was Blackstone
Before I was Marx
Before I was Jefferson
Before I was Lincoln
Before I was Roosevelt (Eleanor)
Before I was Gandhi
Before I was John Paul two.
 
Before I was atom,
Before I was you:

I remained

Constant and unswerving,
Always, already right.