In the Next Life, Canto IV, stanzas 19-22

The women Ciral left have gone home since
we foreshadowed that feat. (Are we not proud?)
I tried as well to drop sufficient hints
that God has come to work the compound crowd.

I shouldn’t be so hard on the big guy,
for in our story, He came out on top.
I wouldn’t want it spread around that I
am not a gracious loser to Our Pop.

That still sounds adversarial. Oh, dear.
That connotation would be inexact.
I know why people need something to fear.
That fits with Ciral’s theory, in fact.

Which is? All who have managed to digest
the gist can just skip past this to the end,
and, most unfortunately for the rest,
all firsthand knowledge perished with our friend.
©2013 Louis A. Merrimac

In the Next Life, Canto IV, stanzas 13-18

Before we leave, I’d like to linger on
the question of God’s new identity.
I have a picture by a master drawn.
I copy it. What image do you see?

Or better yet: You find a long-lost sheet
of notes and plunk them out on your guitar.
They represented melody and beat
but weren’t those things before, and now they are.

You certainly did not compose that piece.
Did it exist, though, in the heretofore?
When no one heard it, did the music cease?
Or was it dormant, like a mildew spore?

Suppose that, unbeknownst to you, the song
is being played somewhere they don’t read notes,
evolving somewhat as it goes along
from strings to ear through various misquotes.

I’m thinking that when these two versions meet,
those who have learned the tune will disagree
which one is more sublime or sounds more sweet,
all based on which one was know previously.

Let’s drop that, though; the two gods’ paths won’t cross.
The indoor god stays happily within,
oblivious of ’97’s loss
and the existence of His outdoor kin.

©2013 Louis A. Merrimac

In the Next Life, Canto IV, stanzas 9-12

Hey, wait a minute: Why are we concerned
about a nonexistent entity?
One is, in all effect, something that turned
into a god from nothing, isn’t she?

The fact that we’re discussing her, though, shows
that she is something worthy of our thought.
Must everything be smelled by someone’s nose,
or seen, or heard, or touched to not be naught?

And that reminds me: Where is our equivalent?
When last we saw Him outside, he’d been raised
from mere words on a paper testament
to His old state, essentially unfazed.

Is this the God who lived in Esther’s brain?
If so, He never died (although He shrank).
I’d still be as impressed. He rose again
with none among the insiders to thank.

Worthy of our thought: Here we return to the meme theme that he started to develop in Canto I. ©2013 Louis A. Merrimac

In the Next Life, Canto IV, stanzas 5-8

Oh well, they’ll be okay. Someday the sign
from One they’ve been awaiting will appear
to give them new direction and refine
the nature of the creature that they fear.

The more they wait, the more will be their needs.
The more they need, the lesser they’ll accept.
I’m starving, so I’ll eat some poppy seeds.
I’ll lie on concrete if I haven’t slept.

Some will be faithful, yet discouraged by
the way the sinners do what sinners do.
They’ll go out in the wilderness and cry
for One to show the sinners who is who.

And what the tubes will read as One’s response
will modifiy their dogma, more or less.
The mother of them all will have new wants.
Precisely what is anybody’s guess.

Someday the sign…will appear: Or not. If it doesn’t come through in time, “Tincandom” will go the way of the Neanderthals. To make Ciral’s theory complete, we need to include the probability that some groups of humans did not find religion when they became aware of the meaning of life, that they perished for its lack, and that some who did develop a faith system didn’t survive as well as those with stronger or more adaptable religions. Again, one wishes that he had elaborated on these important points. The closest he came to explaining this was the one television interview he gave: “I had run out of rhymes by that point.”
Poppy seed…concrete: I’d say Merrimac is grasping at straws with these analogies.
©2013 Louis A. Merrimac