our shame / is History

Commencement Address
by George Starbuck

You are the retribution we invoke.
You are the sudden daybreak we proclaim.
We flock to the unburdening: our shame
Is History: pale alibi: bad joke.

A mud of Nothing labored and awoke.
A spawn of cities crumbled into flame.
A galloping of paladins became
Nightmare and died screaming when it foaled you.

The nebulae come running to behold you.
If it were not so I would have told you.
Surely goodness and mercy are the name
The darkness and the starry legions spoke
When they took up the anthem and enscrolled
In the sparse tangled banners of the dawn.