In the Next Life, Canto III, stanzas 283-286

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Chapter 3
Esther
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If Esther had not panicked, she’d have run.
Had she not had to go, she would have gone.
Had she not been embarrassed, then someone
would not have found her sitting on the john.

Is this the true insider whom we sought?
This pale, defenseless, frightened, teenaged thing?
Had centuries of close confinement brought
our race to this (or is it will they bring)?

Was she a good example of her kind?
At this point it is difficult to tell.
Just think of it as though you’ve long been blind,
and now you find your guide dog can’t see well.

In one sense she was representative:
She had no kind, or rather it was she.
She had no hope, as long as she might live,
that ever she’d rejoin humanity.

©2011 Louis A. Merrimac