words and space, selected and arranged
The Fates of ancient Pythagoreans
Cast prophecies in words of lyric stone.
They numbered off tomorrow's requiem,
Encrypted souls with echoes lithe and blown.
The paths of wandering geometers
Once burned in arcs across the span of night.
They crossed in axioms of noble fire--
The forge of square and curve and length and light.
White whispers tense the web of dark events,
Accumulate in twilight of the past,
Then glare the silent dawn of rigid death
On futures common to the first and last.
The flames of mass extend 'cross land and sea;
The heat of force melts life in destiny.