Completed: 2026-01-09
I once lived in a forest o’ plenty
Where grew all that one needs from soil
Imbibed with ambrosíal oil;
And hanging off the verdant trees,
Of golden fruit, there was excess.
One morn’ I woke to bear the sight of
A shambling beast who, once he found me,
With great and pompous might spoke loudly;
I’ll recount for you all he said
From ‘neath his cloakéd countenance:
I come to you from lands afar,
But soon the desert whence I came
Will greet you—face to face.
This forest shall abandon ye
And you will earn from labor what
Is freely given here.
And back you’ll cast your looks and cry
Erecting statues to the time
You spent inside this womb.
And onward went he as I sat there—
And soon the forest did forsake me,
To these sands, now, that I share with thee;
And every day I think back to
Those nect’rous fruits I never ate.