DIALOGUE

A MIRROR

  OF ETERNITY

In a flash, "What is eternity?"       

the Light proclaimed    

         as it remained ...

"To come again!"          

       Too: "Come again?"          

      as it remained

  the Light proclaimed

"What is eternity!" wasting itself   

away... "What is it you want?" said One
who inquired to One who asked

"I want to be eternal!"

"Eternity's the limits of itself
--It's No-Thing, really.

            A bubble
is eternal in its nature; but what you want
is to own the limits of something beyond
your eternal nature..."

              "... Some
more eternal nature than my own: a tree!
Let me be as eternal as a tree."

"But a tree's soon cut down by people
or by Time itself, else the bugs get you
soon enough--You wouldn't last all that long
as a tree!"

"Then let me be a stone!"
"A stone--whose essence is the dust!

Eventually you too would be ground down
to dust ... on the surface of things
& be blown away by any wind!

     ... while
in the guts (of things) you'd be melt down to
the Oblivion of things ... You wouldn't
survive your fellow-stones, as a stone, and
besides: Who would remember you that long
as a stone?"                  

   "Very well, if I can't even be
eternal (as a Thought), then let me be-
come a work of art       

       --Let me be a Ming vase
worth millions & guarded day & night
in some secure museum: There I'd surely last!"

"As something that fragile!? As a work of
art? Not surely!     

              ... Could you be
guarded against earthquakes? or a nuclear attack?
No. Of course not.    

Be:                    
Nothing!

                   (It's
The One Thing That Lasts.)

... To be, to exist (at all)
is to be fixed upon a moment that was.

Besides, who would remember you all that long
as a Ming vase?"

"Ah, then, Eternity's but to be
remembered after all! Then let me be
a highway! ...

Let me be Death-Alley! (The
most murderous highway of all
... It'll keep my name
in the papers ...

"How about Th'Dust!
Wouldn't you rather be The Dust?"

"Sure, but
that's already taken!"

"And that fast!"

"What remains now--?"