In Rode Reason

Inspired by The Pilgrim’s Regress – C.S. Lewis

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John was in a hole,

A dungeon at that.

He was chained in darkness

With no will for combat.

The jailer would bring food

But above all, he brought games

Games of the mind

That drove the prisoners insane.

He would lay out the meal

It was meat, it was eggs, it was milk

But then he’d describe how the food was prepared

From where it all came and its disgusting ilk.

“It’s of corpses, and menstruum and dung!”

He would say,

“It’s all the same, there is no difference,

So, lap it up and I’ll be on my way.”

But despite his feeble state

John’s mind was strengthened that day

For Reason rode in on her horse

And gave him all the words to say.

“You lie,

And you’re a fool!

You see no difference between refuse

And that which is food!”

“One is cast out,

It brings nothing but death

And the other builds up

It brings life and strength and breath.”

The Spirit of the Age

May control the prison and the dark,

He’ll say that wrong is right

But Reason has a sword to plunge in his heart.

So, Reason rescued John

And now in the light he would walk

Because the Spirit of the Age has been reduced…

To a sprawling hammock of rock.