after Dante or Why Suffer the Pearl?

              for poet Victor di Suvero

Believ'st thou not I am with thee and guide thee on?

                                          Virgil. Purg III, 24

You Yogis/Yoginis

Vedantist/Theravadists,

& New Age Christian Theologians;

philosophers of every prescription,

(even La Stegoneria, or White Witch Wicca)

& all to whom the Master query's some force:

stop, now desist &

question not gelatinous

eyes' subaceous gland stye

or the worth of a pearl

in a world of mollusk,

nor query why of Ms.

Maya, the liar, for-

ever the quia is &

will be because, as

Deer Hunter di Niro sd. to Cazale

holding lead to his paisano's head,

This is this! It ain't somethin else.

Sate contenti, umana gente, al quia.

--Neil Nelson

Note: the film The Deer Hunter is referenced above. Michael speaking to Stanley: "See this. This ain't something else. This is this." The final line is, of course, Dante, (Purg. III, Li. 37)..."With the quia stay content, children of earth!" (translation Laurance Binyon)