(Salte La Oscuridad, Indicado Por Un Destello De Cristal)
Truly mercy is rude to kings,
truly love agitates gods;
why, then, are we taught to love,
and as children, to be merciful?
Leap in the dark, guided
by a flash of crystal:
is faith blind, or a reflection of
desperate hope, nocturnally green?
Look at our world honestly-
it is no longer god's lair
but the crypt of our despair:
chilled with the fog of ignorance,
overseen by ragged angels.
Fernand Roqueplan writes that he is a combat veteran, a medically retired Marine, with a 50% service-connected disability rating from theVeterans Administration. He works physical therapy, as an interpreter for social services and, seasonally, as a steelhead fishing guide. Fernand has been published in the Manhattan Review, Many Mountains Moving, Indiana Review, Revista/Review Interamericana, Wisconsin Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Borderlands.