We brought our dictaphones,
Batteries refreshed
Ready for our Master's Voice.
He said, erect these words
On pillars of brass and stone
In every city of My empire:
“I changed the world forever.
I shut the gates of war, and three times
Peace achieved by force of will
And simple force whose equal none
Will see again for centuries.
These have been My times:
I already have a month of My own
And one day I know the years shall be counted
Beginning with the day I was born.”
He spoke for an hour or more,
listing the things he had achieved.
(I cannot remember them.)
When he was done, he closed his eyes.
He exhaled, and I thought
how frail and used-up he looked
And wondered if, when he had died
And had achieved his promised godhead,
I would think of him, the man deified,
As old and hoarse and dying.
