Читать книгу No Second Eden - Turner Cassity - Страница 11

Stylization and Its Failures

The vulture, at the least, has not the look

Of flying money, or a Seal of State

Become a Frisbee. Eagles on a coin

Or on a flag, or on a Roman standard,

Look more real than in real life, so strong

Has been convention. Formula and frame

Do not apply at roadkill, which is why

No march from any empire has been called

Under the Double Buzzard. One death’s-head

Is quite enough. Upon a currency

It would suggest the god who is not mocked

Is Moloch, and on specie make it clear

All gold is in a sense fool’s gold. Not, there,

A logo to encourage free exchange;

Reminder, rather, that we barter life

In kind, to have corruption as return.

Ambitious Scout whose merit badges mass,

Would you continue if you knew the end

Is Court of Honor for a scavenger?

Bald Eagle, Vulture of the Naked Neck,

Are both of you one bird? One carrier

To whose one message there is one reply?

It was mere chance that a Samaritan

Should happen by; mere chance that he was good.

The body by the roadside nonetheless

Would have received attention, in due time.