coined eyes

Coined Eyes

The wise

Have eyes

Closed with coins.

Death

Severs breath

And knowledge joins

To the spent brain's mind --

All truth's bind

In the after.

Tears and laughter,

Fears

And the years

Of living in fear of the dark

Have kept us from the depths wishing

For the Ark.

Fishing

For a fate

Left too late

That's growing stark.

Black dogs bark

In shadow home,

Heard by dead sages under the loam --

Funereal lessons taught,

Afterlife learning caught:

Learning ceases never,

Pupils forever.

Students to the ancient arts,

Understudies for greater parts,

As breathing stops thinking starts.

Apprentice to sepulchral lords --

Thieves of knowledge from old god's hoards.

Words can act as powerful swords,

Severing ignorance's chords;

Stupidity is a river the clever man fords,

The man of action acts, a man of complacency applauds.

The wise have ears

Which hear the fears

Of the idiot living --

Now come the years

Of their giving.

Out of grave silence they arise,

For the wise

Have eyes

Closed with coins

And foretell the scars

Of the wars