The Trial of Pope Pius

“The prisoner will state his name.”
“The prisoner will state his name!”
At this emphatic refrain
One short look informs
This saintly crowd of Monsignors
This tonsured flock in pinafores
A simple explanation for
The silence of the prisoner.
His hair is matted on his head
His eyes are closed within his head
His skin like parchment, cracked and red
His mouth a rictus tightly spread
His limbs contort in rigor’s stead
No movement stirs from foot to head
Throughout which maggots thickly spread.
In short, the man is clearly dead.

“Bailiff! Did the prisoner manifest
Or, as well as you can express
Demonstrate a tendency
To recalcitrancy
When you brought him up from
The Catacombs?”
The Chief Inquisitor intones.
“Recalcitrancy, your honor?
He’s dead, I’ll swear.”
“Yes, yes,”
The judge acquiesces
“But remember, my good man
This is no ordinary criminal
He is a part of the Divine Plan
And not subject to mere temporal
Limitations.
His Pontifical station
Brings him divine inspiration
Should he decline our invitation
To refute recriminations
To participate in discussion
Of his crimes, their repercussions
That’s entirely his decision.”

The Chambers were resplendent
In their early morning glow
A giant crucifix transcendent
Gold and saffron all below
The Cardinals in vermillion
Did their riveted interest show
As they focused their attention
On the prisoner they all know.

The charges against the prisoner”
states the sainted Grand Inquisitor
“Instigated by his Holiness
The current Pope Sylvester
State that Pius
Who we all know as his immediate predecessor
Had engaged in acts
Of a character most sinister.
Lechery, debauchery,
Sodomy and simony
Embezzling the treasury
Comforting the enemy.
In short, he must have punishment
For ordering Sylvester’s banishment.”

“If I may be so bold, Sir”
squeaks the Junior Inquisitor
“The prisoner has ceased to be.
What possible functionality
Can lie
In attempting to try
Him for a crime?”

“My dear, dear colleague
You are charmingly naïve.
The function of our law, you see
Is not to protect society
But to give credibility
To our rich and powerful clergy!
Now Pius, to his everlasting shame
Was actually true to his name
He sought to promote God and truth
Not simply to accumulate wealth
He seemed to see his function
As fighting against corruption.
We must discredit this intention.”

And so, most expeditiously
Though not, in fact, judiciously
Pope Pius’ corpse was summarily
Put through some legal mummery.
When all the facts were clear
As least for the purposes of the Grand Inquisitor
His dead bones were drawn and quartered
And thrown into the Tiber.
Does this make him a martyr?

© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005

wash your hands

Game a’plenty
In the wild Serengeti
Elephant, rhinoceros
Endless meat for us
Lush, jungle clearings
Filled with wild careerings
Of quail, heron
And colorful pelican
We scarcely have the room
All these jungle fruits and nuts to consume
Bananas, mangos
Walnuts, pistachios.

But now hunger stalks our land
Famine shows here withered hand
The rains have ceased
Wild animals deceased
Desert lands increased
We thirst without surcease
Our new race
That had begun to thrive
May not survive.

So many die, so many die
They cannot survive their infancy
I look to the Heavens to tell me why
To give me some clue to this mystery.

None can match
The grandeur of Rome
Nor ever finish
Extolling her Name
The city of eternal fame
Her gladiators, her games
Her aqueducts, her baths
Her vaunted cenotaphs
All tribute to nobility’s prime
All part of her nature sublime.

But her population’s gone into decline
Perhaps she became overrefined
The vaunted eagle’s lame
Her circuses gone, the animals tame
To many baths, running water’s to blame
Or maybe the man
Who washed his hands
Hoping to restrain
The Galilean’s campaign.

So many die, So many die
They cannot survive their infancy
I look to the Heavens to tell me why
To give me some clue to this mystery.

Notre Dame, Chartres
Stained glass windows
Luminous vistas
Translucent billows
The High Mediaeval
The Gothic Cathedral
A cultural pinnacle
That’s never been equaled.

But now the Black Death has her day
Darkness, the gnashing of teeth hold sway
The Pope’s been taken to Babylon
Cosily kept at Avignon
Bonfires burning night and day
Help to keep the plague away
Help protect the Holy See
Through most divine Sterility.

So many die, So many die
They cannot survive their infancy
I look to the Heavens to tell me why
To give me some clue to this mystery.

Now it’s the nineteenth century
Still massive infant mortality
But now some eccentric physician
Is giving the strange explanation
That hand-washing before operations
Will greatly reduce complications
Such as gangrenous inflammations.

Now this really makes no sense
If I shake hands with a gentleman
He surely will not take offense
He knows it will not hurt his hand
Since no inflammation is caused here
It really is quite unclear
Why more problems should appear
For the medical practitioner.

We understand conceptually
What we are able to see.


© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005

La Crimée

C’est magnifique, mais c’est pas la guerre!
On peut le dire pour toute l’affaire.

En tout particulier
En le cas de la choléra
Vomissant
Tu tripes se tordant
Avoir les haut-le-coeur
Sans arrêt
Pendant deux ou trois jours
Les crampes partout en le corps
Et tout ca une profusion de blessures
Et la colique, bien sûr!
Te chiant sans cesse, jour apres jour
Comment meillieur
Que de mourir en tons propres ordures!

Mais c’est la guerre, mon vieux
Ou, peut-être pas
Même chose pour tout ceux
Qui n’ont pas la joie
D’etre riches et isolés
Dans leurs grands palais
Parce que c’était toute l’Europe
Ou la choléra a fait sa route.

Et ca donne assez de travail
Les mourants qui ralent
Pour chère Florence Nightingale
La primière vraie infirmière
N’est pas ca une bonne affaire
Mais c’est la paix ou la guerre?

Tenons un autre exemple
Faisons nos idées plus amples
Considerons les grands naufrages
Qui ont tué les matelots dans les orages
Et bien des soldats francais aussi
Trois quarts des morts en cette "guerre"-ci
Ont perdu la vie
Hors du combat.

Voyez comme les voiles se ballonent
Ballotés, dechirés par le vent
Les machines a vapeur
Leurs orange brilliant lueur
Etouffés par le terrible grandeur
Des ouragons, pluies et par le montre
De la houle en plein ventre
C'est bien aussi belle qu'on puisse désirer
Les coups de foudre font tout s'éclairer
Mais pour tous ceux qui se noyaient
J'en suis sûr que la beauté fanait.

Mais ca peut bien arriver en la paix
Et quelqu'on a tenu la grande idée
De tous ces navires et hommes dechirés
En les eaux de la Crimée
Un meilleur connaissance météorologique
Pour tout l'Europe on s'applique
Communicer les détailles télégraphiques
De les orages
Serait plus sages
Mais pourquoi est il nécessaire
Découvrir ces choses en temps de la guerre?

Mais il y avait des batailles dans la guerre!
Sans ceci, c'est pas même affaire
Certainement ceux-ci sont vraiment la guerre
Avec du sang, la mort et blessures.

En général, c'est le cas
Mais pas cette fois
Tres peu mort en batailles
Assez du bruit, mais pas de funérailles
Même en la charge de la Brigade Légére
Ca c'est la "suicide" dans cette guerre
La motié reste sans blessure
Seulement un en cinq mort!
Entre les "ennémis", pas de haine
Ils se rencontrent comme bons copains
Si vous ne me croyez
Venez voir Tolstoi "Sebastopol en Mai".

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ici?
Quand est ce qu'il y a les guerres comme ceci?
Quel était le but
De toute cette emeute?
Les avances technologiques, bien sûr
C'est comme les affaires
Une trés bonne expérience
Pour nouvelles tendances
Et aussi en politique, bien sûr
On démontre en la guerre
Les faiblesses des Turk et Russe empires.
Comment les réparer?
Peut-être la democratie.
Je ne me crois guère
Mais c'était bonne chose avoir eu cette "guerre"!


© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005

El Imperio


La Estancia de mi amo
Esta grande como la terra entera
Esta magnifica como la sierra en la madrugada
Con mariposas y flores sosegados
Y pajaros de todos tipos
Con plumajes rojos y amarillos
Esta poderoso como El Imperio Inca
Como estaba hacia dos cien años.

Yo estoy trabajador indio
Pobre hombre endeudado
A mi amo todopoderoso
Probablemente por mi vida entera
No tengo ninguno espero
Huir de este destino
Por que todas las fuerzas armadas
Vengan de le Rei d’España.

Pero las ferias me gustan
Todas los productos de la España y Europa
Cada año vengan
Y todo el mundo se encantan
Con ropa, sombreros
Caulquier herramientos
Alfombras,
Almohadas
Todos colores de telas
Rojas, verdes, azules, amarillas
Parezcar como las frutas de las selvas
Pero ser tal para cual
En toda la festival
Los pobres quedan pobres
Y plata y dinero
Reglan el campo entero
No solamente para el Rei de España
Pero para todos los paises de l’Europa
Sino las piratas
Estan las contrabandistas
Todos robando
El pobre indio.

Quizas, una dia
Vendra una nueva Inca
Quien sabra como
Dar libertad a el indio
Con fuerzas armadas
Derrotar esas de l’España.

Pero, no lo creo
No esta España solo
Pero todos los paises del mundo entero
Ellos quieran nuestra plata
Y ninguna otra cosa.
Una nueva Inca
Tratando tomar el poder
Seria como una araña
Con todas sus piernas arrancada.

Solamente quando las fuerzas del Pueblo
De toda la gente del mundo
Entiendan que estamos todo el mismo
Que luchando para plata esta un juego
En que ninguna persona ganando
Quando lideres quieran avanzar el mundo
Aun su propio poder disminuando
seria un mejoramiento
Una nueva tecnologia
Para ganar la vida
Por las seres humana.

© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005

The Word

In the beginning
There was the Word
And the Word was with God
And God was the Word
So then what?
Well, write it down
Then we won't have to worry about some clown
Of great renown
Reciting the bloody thing all over town
For fear of forgetting its sound.

It's really no coincidence
That civilization started with writing things
It's much easier to make sense
When we can really look at things
The written word's tangible
It's questionable
It's analyzable
Which makes it remarkable.

Now once we’ve got these words down
What’s next to be done
What’s the most basic question
For which we can use them
And even a bit of reflection
Upon this new innovation
Shows what must be done
Let’s distinguish right from wrong.

In this most general sense
We now have a major advance
We write down what we need to know
In order to forward our goals
We may not always be right
But then we can always rewrite
With Law, Morality, Religion
Humanity truly has vision.

Then we have natural development
Science, mathematics come naturally
As a kind of attachment
To the application of moral philosophy
But what we need, really
Is some new understanding of reality
How to proceed philosophically
To represent actual processes
That is to take what we see
As it proceeds piece by piece
To understand empirically
And to represent such processes
In terms of underlying mechanisms
The concept of experiment
All written down on parchment.

And then with written experiments
All kinds of new developments
Mathematics, electricity
Develop exponentially
And with this new technology
We find a new methodology
For representing ideas.
Movies, computers, television
Enable us to expand our vision
With new forms of representation
To assist with progress and innovation.
Perhaps, the Word’s a limitation
Too abstract a representation
Mathematics is a fine invention
But not reality’s substitution
Take images of things themselves
Compare the versions on history’s shelves
Patterns which reveal themselves
Then progress can proceed apace
As the future shows its rosy face.


© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005

The Threat

Why are the barbarians always at the gates?
They’re always there, you’ll never escape
Maybe they think they’re waiting for a date
Maybe they want to immigrate
In any case, they sit and wait
Hoping we won’t retaliate
It’s really a perpetual state
Of quietly waiting for things to mutate.

We don’t really like them sitting there
They’re ugly, they have disheveled hair
They’re always poorer than we are
And most of all, we really don’t care
They seem to want the things we have
To be like us is what they crave
And though we aren’t so very brave
The little we have we’re determined to save.

When did they first start sitting there?
Was it back when we had the first empires
Those Egyptian and Sumerian leaders
Did they have to deal with foreign squatters
Trying to get a piece of the action
Representing a kind of competition
To a desire for domination
From an originating dominion.

Of course, “barbarians” depend on perspective
It’s really just a form of invective
Are we at their gates or are they at ours
Are we terrorists or just neighbours
What is the basis for this conflict
Are our motives just naturally suspect
Who is the derelict
Who has the right to judge and inspect.

One point that does seem clear in the end
The barbarians have a tendency to win
Once we recognize their aim
It’s hard to get them to go away again
The Romans kept on joining them
The Chinese lost to Genghis Khan
The Jews are in incessant pain
The whole world’s barbarians to them.

Another point that comes to light
We are responsible for our plight
When we ourselves align with right
Barbarians are put to flight
Goodness is the world’s delight
It seems to attract force and might
We do not fear the force of night
With power and majesty in sight.

To Spain’s Grandees the Dutch Revolt
Seemed a threat, a brash insult
Superior culture, industrial might
Meant nothing, power was their right
And only a decades long fight
Convinced them they had no divine right
To crush all those who opposed with force
The Dons sacred, Catholic course.

And then when England held grand sway
It was the Dutch financed America’s way
To seek her independency
From a total world hegemony
And weren’t they barbaric dogs to they
Who sought total supremacy
Over all the world’s entirety
Who sought always to have their way.

So when we see barbarians at our door
Remember what they have in store
We may think that we know more
But many’s the time we’ve been wrong before
There’s no one who’s right all the time
They enemy’s views may be righter than mine
And anyone who’s studied history
Knows the course of progress’ a mystery.




© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005

La Balance

Balancer, jongler, ceux sont jeux d'enfance
Comment ca peut-être le but de la France?
Tout le monde cherche l'argent et le pouvoir
Faut il pas que ce soit le notre espoir?
Voyant le grand monde comme il se désintegre
Nos esperances humanitaires sont assez maigres
Mais croyons avec du temps en la course de la vie
L'ambition est d'accord avec l'humanité.

Voyez l'actions de notre gouvernement
C'est toujours le but de faire entente
Depuis la fin de deuxième guerre mondiale
Pour la France, le compromis se vale
L'arrogance, hauteur, fierté sont bons
Mais pas pour tout le monde ensemble
Petite, centraliseé au sein du monde
La France préfère la table ronde.

Quand elle avait problemes en Indochine
Elle conclut ca ne vaut la peine
Meme chose en Algérie Francaise
En depit de cent ans de maitraise
Quand il faudrait un nouvel partenaire
Pour faire un nouvel Europe entier
Pourquoi pas l'Allemagne, sont gens comme les autres
Les guerres mondiales n'etaient pas seul sa faute.

Bien sur, les forces Américains
Ne doivent pas être sur notre terrain
C'est pas l'arrogance en ce cas-ci
C'est seulement la libérté
C'est vrai, ils ont gagné la guerre
Ca ne les donne droit sur notre terre
S'ils veulent être policiers du monde
Ils peuvent le faire d'une autre lande.

Eh. Brigitte!
Comme t’es chique
Portant vêtments et avec ta canne
T’es plus belle que quand t’avais vingt ans
Mais pourqoi est ce que t’es en train
De appuyer Monsieur Le Penn?
Il te semble comme les phoques sur glace Canadienne?
Aie confiance en tes francais contemporains
La France ne deviens Musulman
On utilise leurs ressources humains
Pour améliorer notre propre destin
Quand la France accroit sa population
Son influence accroit tout de meme
Et meme les gens Musulmans
Savent que c’est une bonne Nation
Veulent pas que soit Afghanistan
Et en tout cas le gouvernement
Puisse introduire les restrictions
Pour gaurantir les choses qui viennent
La France sera toujours Chrétienne.

Mais avec les problèmes d’enérgie
Les plus importants pour notre pays
Qu’est ce qu’on doit faire des q’aujourd’hui?
Dans un monde qui est surpeuplé
Surpollué, surindustrialisé
Ou est la solution qui satisfait
Toute ces sortes de difficultés
Qui sont si difficles de régler?

Considerez Wilber Wright, l’aviateur
Le plus grand des grands inventeurs
Avec un magasin pour bicyclettes
Il a entrepris les plus grands enquetes
Avec les ressources d’un bourgeois homme
Il a bien conquis le monde
Peut-etre la il y a une lecon
En tout ca pour nous aidons.

Comment balancer les besoins
Des bureaucrates, scientifiques et autres gens
Hommes d’affaires
Ingénieurs
Ils ont tous leurs propres intérets
Est-ce qu’il y a une problème ici?
Peut-etre tous ces petits conflits
Rendent impossible le vrai progrès.

Peut-être la France puisse balancer
Tous ces divers interéts
Pour arriver a une approche
Qui rendera nos interéts plus proches
Une vraie direction pour technologie
Pour resoudre les problemes d’enérgie
Est la seule chose qui puisse nous aider
Résoudre les problèmes d’aujourd’hui.


© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus 2005