Whitewash House
(Worms in the Rose Garden)
My life is worn out. What more can I do? Well, maybe I could imagine something better than what I know to be true. I know. That’s too simple. So, what if the world is quarreling about partisanship? What crippling misfortune are we moving toward? We are engaged in a perfect storm of insanity beset by so many points of mistrust.
If I stay awake long enough, I will see a world looked down upon by weeping angels. Have we cultivated a fog so thick even common sense cannot see through it?
No! I won’t be defeatist, even at this late stage. Surely, I will live long enough to see a revolt against anger and division. I regret my filthy education, that I’m not a leader, that I’ve chosen a life of amusement, dreaming of fantastic worlds, monstrous loves, acrobats, beggars, and bandits who become priests…a life of believing I could escape modern suffering through art…through my poorly written stories…but finally, I see my punishment.
The world has no ages; humanity moves from place to place, that’s all. I am a western man, quite free to live in the Orient if I choose, but my mind has been fast asleep.
During this time of slumber, the world has moved itself toward a horrible memory. Worms of indecency crawling into powerful places, heartless, aged figures promoting racism, and nothing we can do seems to send these worms back into the soil.
Let us accept a new strength, let us detest division and appreciate differences. Let us replace ultimate power with ultimate tenderness. At dawn, let’s not forget our growing impatience with anyone who denigrates humanity, or abuses the idea of charity with falsehoods, and ignorance.
Let’s be absolutely modern and not accept those who would move humanity backward. Let’s face the truth. There are men in this world who need sending back into the soil, their skin corroding with dirt, their armpits crawling with worms, because the battle for the soul of a united humanity is as brutal as the battle of men.
Bring back the idea of justice, and make common decency a promise to which we should all aspire, and one we must demonstrate as well as expect.
