Leap in the Dark, Guided by a Flash of Crystal

(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.

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