What Pandora Said (January 2007)

I met Forethought on Mount Caucausus.
It was not wholly unexpected.
Fire there was in my past,
And there was healing and cultivated fields,
And I thought to thank him.

What have you done, son of Iapetus?
What have you not done?
All these works were done in your name.

The poets have immortalized you
The geniuses of music have sung your name
We worship you,
O Poem of Fire.
You are our first daemon.

Great Teacher,
Why were you punished alone
When others helped you?
What is there in greatness
That incites the wrath of the gods?
The wickedness of tyrants
I cannot comprehend.

Were you deceitful?
I think not.
Every word you spoke was honest,
Although it may have been ill advised.
Every word you spoke was honest,
And for you it was the Truth.

I love him for his boldness.
I love him for his intellect.
I love him for his creations.
I love him through his sins.
The sinner suffers more than his victims.

Is hubris a sin?
To do what is right,
To accept the punishment—
Is this hubris?

All you have done
Is kindness.

I want to fight off Ethon.
I want to spare you pain.
I cannot,
But Death for you is Victory.

Do not tell me the future you know.
Who will be punished for what you have done?

Will it be me?