The Liminal Man

Writings of a man born between worlds

Their Motto

During the 97-98 School Year

Commissioned warrior saints within a world
that groans and wails beneath a tyrant’s boot
sit idly with their battle banners furled,
and watch the tyrant’s minions rape and loot.
Their shining King has bid them boldly stand
against the hardened strength of all their woe,
but they in fearful sloth dodge his command,
avoiding confrontation with the foe.
Yet on their smooth and shiny shields, inscribed
in fiery letters all inlaid with gold,
there gleams a motto to them all ascribed,
an excerpt from the Law they’re to uphold:
“The wicked man will praise those like to him,
but such as keep the Law contend with them.”

Notes:

I wrote this some time during the 97-98 school year. The “all their woe” is a verbal echo of the opening of Paradise Lost, a passage I first encountered in a course on Milton in the Fall of 97. I remember that what initially sparked the composition of this poem was the realization that the last half of Proverbs 28:4 was a line of iambic pentameter. I believe I first recast the rest of the verse to get a rhyming couplet, and then the rest of the poem was built around that.