Distant Redeemer
by P.H. Wise

Overcast sky and moss-eaten bricks
Evergreen beside a dead oak
The old fence is held up more by ivy than by wood.
A crow kaws, a vulture circles:
When God speaks, a man can't but listen
'Information wants to be free.'

Hateful as 'From A Distance,'
It's only lovely if you don't look too close
A little girl who won't grow up flies away to shining Neverland
and finds the Lost Boys don't need a playmate but a mother
and bitterly she hurries home, back to her bed,
back to her nursery, back to her sedentary future
to wait for the world to wait for her -
no sense in hurrying these things.

Hateful as a prideful man whose dignity is pricked,
It's only noble when it's not happening near you
A little boy who feels himself impaired casts aside his only source of worth
and finds in Hell the merit that he could not find in Heaven
and bitterly he rages there, and though ruler of the infernal realm,
He cannot even lift his head without permission of all-seeing Heav'n
To seek, to yearn, to strive, to fail,
'and what else is not to be overcome?'

I can make a true song about my self
of my travels, and how I have wandered
unknown and unknowing,
never really getting past the front door
At least the view is good.

Information is an empty word
Something vast unfolding in the world
Electric cities linked by glowing screens

I don't know who I am
I don't know what I want
I was supposed to start running a long time ago.
I know what I'm doing
I know what I'm doing
I hope I know what I'm doing

I watch the sun rise over my valley,
the fog rolling down the hills in long, cold spiderthreads
It doesn't pertain to me.

I am connected, but I don't know what that means
I am offended. Unjust, it's not the way it should be.
I am wronged. It's not fair. It's not fair to me.
I is the center of the world
I is the character of Hell
I is the bloated self, gorging upon the Other
Drink deep.

Then a voice answered out of the storm,
"But when was it ever about you?
Are the roots of the mountains the work of your hand?
Were you there when the Earth's foundation was laid?
Have you given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place?
Is it your primal love which moves the sun and the stars?
Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
You wish to be eternal, from everlasting to everlasting?
I am eternal.
You are barely Ouruborous."

Like ice water on a chilly morning,
Like a heavy-handed slap when all I wanted was to pity myself
A sudden break in the clouds, and I'm left blinded,
blinking, peering about.
The Earth is so large, and the cosmos so small.
and like Job, I know that my Redeemer lives,
that he will stand upon the earth.
And though I rot to dust and more,
in my flesh I shall see God;
I shall see Him with my own eyes.