04-16-2025, 11:45 AM
Beside her stands a lion with her hands about his mouth,
whether to pry it open or to firmly seal it shut
few witnesses are sure, and yet like Arethusa's flight
from her unwanted suitor and his riverine delight
bringing the nymph so deep into the earth, she caught King Dis
hopeless to give his future queen an ill-begotten kiss,
so Fortitude would shovel over us humility
if we would be some kind of vital font across the sea,
her rule, plain yet profound, is to accept reality,
to struggle, though the end be fatal, with serenity,
sure that a martyr's blood possesses both the broadest sweep
and the least doubtful hand to lard what our descendants reap,
wherefore she is not so arranged to brandish violence:
instead she merely fondles her least sanguinary pet.
whether to pry it open or to firmly seal it shut
few witnesses are sure, and yet like Arethusa's flight
from her unwanted suitor and his riverine delight
bringing the nymph so deep into the earth, she caught King Dis
hopeless to give his future queen an ill-begotten kiss,
so Fortitude would shovel over us humility
if we would be some kind of vital font across the sea,
her rule, plain yet profound, is to accept reality,
to struggle, though the end be fatal, with serenity,
sure that a martyr's blood possesses both the broadest sweep
and the least doubtful hand to lard what our descendants reap,
wherefore she is not so arranged to brandish violence:
instead she merely fondles her least sanguinary pet.