De Profundis

Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Shoulders of rhinosaurus. Hands like hammers. Legs to break legs. A day of work, an evening fishing, No noise to wrinkle the calm face of the lake as we rowed across the sloe-black night back to shore. Hard men for hard toil, for building in the wilderness vast mansions for the future of mankind, our plots in deep forests, and calm evenings afloat on water. The old German would fish off the side of the boat, cursing the tangles in his line, the lack of fish, the dog sounds of German not his own. "You speak like a Pole, a Slav, a Gypsy. You do not say "Bach' that way. It is Bach, like this." And so, over the weeks the conversations dimmed into darkness. In the night on the water he'd pick up and recall those days when he was young, "Ach, that was the time." In time he began to talk in the night while the rhythms of the oars beat the cadence of his conversation. The scent of fish and pine. Ah, Bavaria, when we were young and strong. To be Masters of a million fates, or maybe merely a hundred or two. Heart to crush stone. Soul like swords. Eyes of Atropos.

I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me.
In the day of my troubles I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
Thou holdest my eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
I call to rememberance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will He be favourable no more?
Is His mercy clean gone forever? doth His promise fail for evermore?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath He in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.
I will remember the worlds of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so graet a God as our God?
Thou art the God that dost wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.
Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.
The voice of thy thunder was in the heavens: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

Every day till Judgement there is a weight, there is a wonder. There is the sinking into the sea of the past and the washing onto the beach. And 30 years can span the deeds that one thinks another will not know, will never know, will not know what this dhimmi did, what that dhimmi didn't. Who went away. Who took them? "We took them away," the voice in the darkness claimed, night after night in the boat.

There comes a time when those who took must take. There comes a time when those who gave what they had to give must come to take what they must take; storms pass away leaving a time for those who row to rest, to watch the emergence of the stars, to drift in solitude to safe shores.

Ecce: The Sun emerges from the darkest night, and Man arises too to greet the day.

Esse: Man will come in the light to flood the sand sea in blood.

Erexere: The chains are wind that Man will blow across the desert with his breath.

Our Moslem cousins labour at the mill in vain with the blind. The slave, long ago shorn of his strength, turns, and the Moslems do not see.

The worms of the Earth
Slowly gnawed away
At the prop, and
The Moslems saw
Plainly that if they had
Known the unseen, they
Would not have tarried
In the humiliating Penalty
Of their task.

We row alone in the darkness to the shore, leaving the crimes of the past to the ways of the unknown, to await our judgement.

Our Moslem cousins, you have read Psalm 77 above, from the King James Bible. Selah.