Où est la vaillance d’antan?
Où sont les neiges d’antan?
—Villon
How have we lost our courage, O my Muse!
The daily headlines surely must confuse
The reader who’s aware of how men acted
In history when not by fear distracted.
Recall how Noah, led by God, set sail,
The last man standing, who knew if he’d fail
The human race would perish, and all creatures,
Unless God re-created their dear features.
Two words he banished from vocabulary:
What if. . .? As Noah undertook his very
Dangerous mission, ‘til olive branch and dove
Showed him and his the power of Faith and Love.
Or watch Odysseus departing Troy,
As hostile gods upon his route deploy
Skylla, Charybdis, Polyphemus, and
Circe, who would touch men with her hand
And turn them into beasts, fate worse than death!
The Sirens too,
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