Now as the internet
Trickles through your fingers
You are written as you write –
All desires known?
Between instinct and design
The web will weave your web
Meanwhile the notebook of Marcus
Aurelius lent to a friend who lent it
To a friend who lent it forward…
To a publishers’ promotional campaign
Who aggrandized all its jottings with the title –
‘Meditations’ –
They were following a fad
Which eventually ‘went viral’
The original inscription reads:
‘How Do I Get Out of This Mess?’
Written by a man on manoeuvres –
One who turns from sight of blood
Inclined to pardon enemies
Generous to friends
Who turn and sabotage his reputation
Who sits in the Senate taken for granted –
In two thousand years
A decadent Empire now in need
Hails him as an ‘overnight sensation’
If you find this book
Please do not return it to the Forum
Instead – and in accordance with his duties –
A flooded rat-infested trench in Gaul
A bivouac beside Germanic Danube
A carpet under canvas in Sahara
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.