The Invisible Shepherd

Happy Twenty Twenty-one
We need to hit the pharmacy
and pick up some free calendars —
the word you know’s from Latin
calendarium, account book
that’s a book of debts
and book’s from beech
the tree of death — but, seriously
Economy, the Nomos, springs
Instead from trees of dogma
All of which’ll grow into a labyrinth
An invisible shepherd
That shepherds you through —
Nomos, from nemein, land capture
For pasture
The nomeus, the shepherd, is a colonizer
Exploiter of earth and sheep alike
Spreader of strife, and disease,
Polluting and looting
Your skin, your eyes
The other tree, of Physis,
Is the tree of life, the tree of ease
Whose leaves, says John of Patmos,
Are the medicine of the people
And just as Nomos pollutes the land
And poisons skies and seas
Physis, physician, the healer, as the remedy
Spreads ease and frees
This desecrated Eden

This post was originally published on Radio Free.