The Faithless Latin Lover

Tranquilo, she said, and I said no,
There are doors through which I cannot go.
The earth is firm beneath my feet.
Gravity — or gravitas — can easily defeat
Your infantile illusions, the cruel delusions
Of your groundless faith.
To depend on it is quite unsafe.
With the evidence so slim,
It’s a chimera, a careless whim,
A promise unfulfilled.
It’s a place that unskilled
novelists and priests and poets creep
in darkness when they cannot sleep.
My feet (and visions) are firmly on the ground.
Contento, I said. And she said no, I’ve found
doors through which you’ll never go.
Earth spins silently on its axis.
There is nothing for you but death and taxes.
But I have seen a face behind a cloud
And its speaks clearly and quite loud,
It says, “I am the light.”
Well that must have given you a fright,
My love, my life, my lightning. It’s little wonder
Your grip on reality has been split asunder.
Behind the clouds there is indeed a universe
That has proved itself unwilling to converse
With NASA, SETI, or the Saragossa Sea.
Believe me. Believe in me.
Veremos, she said. We’ll see.

