Velamen Prelude

“I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake… I write to you little children because you have known the Father.”

1 John 2:12-13

“Midway upon the journey of life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”

Dante Alighieri

How could I fall into a trap so elaborate?

Where freedom like a river droughted into evaporate?

Did I lose a wager? The cost: forfeited manumission

Or did I end up dead? A victim of twisted ammunition

But manumission insinuates I was enslaved

The question is:

From what or whom was I eventually saved?

Whatever it was, whether I was freed or not

My body was left to rot in a spot 

Where thorns and briers knotted the plots 

Of those just like me

Run aground soundlessly 

By a society that prides itself on clear thinking and sobriety

But quietly, it’s drunk on punch that makes lunch of the oppressed

Taking the “best” of our “talent” and discarding the rest

Like the slop for the swine

Treating us as though we don’t reflect the Divine

But the belief of the pork is we’re the descendants of Ham

Should be rounded up, shackled and put in line

From iron fetters to silver bracelets around our wrists

Remind me of ties that bind

The talons of a Fury

Cocytus’s icy breath

Emitted by messengers of a darkened Mercury

Ultimately, I don’t give a shit if your uncle’s a cop. 

They’re no better than this

They can cop their duty to protect and serve to the City of Dis

But, I’ve stepped ahead like a runner before the shot

I need to backtrack to the initial predicament

This first part is just about me

So let me do “due diligence”