Inert watchers are cardinal electors:
vote once and the white smoke
will haunt whoever comes next.
Stasis does not know the water
whose ripples contravene
St. Augustine's faith.
Can a final dinner be honest
about the lilting side of the table
where one of us sits?
Triple haunted all shall be
by transience, warmth,
and holy stillness.
To stand still is to choose
a passive breath, so-called autonomic
let-down death.
The light may go: out
stars may pass: away
but you might sing lucidity
and thereby alight without rage.
Roman Ryan 