Delphi

I think we have to conclude

that the Greeks

were mistaken.

A girl on a stool

high on drugs

up a hill

could hardly translate

for a snake

that was itself

spokesperson

(spokesnake?)

for old, chaotic

Mother Earth.

But they came

nonetheless

the feeble

the old

the rabid

looking for folk answers

to folk problems

hoping today

she’d speak

common Greek.

No one asked

if she had any interest

in sour milk

the sick cow

and the blight

that had fallen on the vineyard.

A few self-confessed skeptics

privately thought

that this was

 

 

 

joke

about our failure

to realise

that riddles

are just riddles

and the Earth

just the earth.

Later, of course,

another priest came

who stood over the dragon

speaking powerful words

not a reader of riddles

but the riddle himself

and the poor came

the feeble

the rabid

the lame

looking for folk answers

to folk problems

and finding

the man

who came forth

from the earth

had something to say

that was not

of this

earth.

But now

a new form of reverence

is practised in Greece

the self-confessed skeptics

run workshops and digs

and stand in the temple

announcing

 

 

 

status

but saying

that the earth beneath

is completely

indifferent

and that there’s nothing

above

or beyond

or below

that has anything to say

to the poor folk of Greece.

But I’ve always thought

that there’s something to be said

for the wisdom

of poor folk

who come from the hills

looking for folk answers

to folk problems

and though they were wrong

about the girl on the stool

the earth is not silent

and the riddles

not

untrue.