In the Next Life, Canto III, stanzas 29-32

Though Ciral didn’t know that steel should be
reduced to dust when centuries have passed,
he grew suspicious when he neared to see
that all the legs displayed an oily cast.

If anyone was using oil out here,
it must be recent, else it would be dry.
Machines unused for much less than a year
would show no trace. So who, and when, and why?

It must be something other than the stuff
the outsiders would work so hard to find,
and which no one would ever use enough
to coat the limbs of something left behind.

He’d come with no specific plan in mind;
he’d thought he’d lose his nerve when he came near,
but now the balance had been realigned.
Again, his thirst for knowledge trumped his fear.

Balance: This gets us used to the idea of opposing influences whose relative strength shifts, leading to changes in behavior. Thus we should be prepared to grasp the “break in equilibrium” in Canto IV.

©2010 Louis A. Merrimac