The Madman
At first, he wondered why he should be spared;
Observed, of all the windows, none was barred,
And every door swung open at a word.
The garden welcomed him; the angel’s sword
Flowered before his eyes like Aaron’s rod;
At first he wondered that he should be spared.
The beasts had grown so tame they hardly stirred;
The wall uncoiled its length without a guard
Where every door swung open at a word,
And trees bowed low to offer all they had.
The woman swore he was her only lord
Although, of all the windows, none was barred.
He called it Eden (but it was the world),
And so, until it was too late, ignored
The lucid glass that sealed the windows hard;
No longer troubled to pronounce the word.
But at the end, when towering clouds hurled
Boomerangs at him, and the thunder roared
At him one terrible and final chord,
He knew at last that he had not been spared,
Ran screaming from the mirror, and was mad.
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