THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
He sat at the top of the stairs from where the grassy lawn began
Sloping down from the columned face of the Academy of Philosophy
Surrounded by his cats, all seven of them, seeming to talk to them,
Teaching harmony with his movements, half human, half cat-like
With gentle patience and acceptance, giving and not asking for anything in return.
The School of Athens with Plato and disciples transformed into a cats’ symposium
Listening to dialogues about moral virtue and good government?
If only it were up to cats to govern and rule the world, he thought,
Would the world not be a better place even for men and women?
He knew that cats will not come to you if you are nasty.
They will not come if you are angered or punishing
Or demanding something from them for yourself.
They know what’s good for them and what’s not
Even if in your human cunning you try to play tricks on them.
Like all great animals they see beyond your tricks and laugh inside.
With one eye cocked and peering out at how ignorant we are,
They will seem to say “I see what you are trying to do. I’m a cat.
Please don’t be a fool, don’t take me for a fool, move beyond what you hide
Human ignorance and tricks. I can only be a cat, never anything else,
You, at all costs try to be something you are not.
Do you think that we cannot understand what you do?
Do you think that you are the only intelligence in the universe?”
Cats listening to his teachings and watching his movements
On the grassy lawn sloping down from the Academy of Philosophy
Their faces gazed deep into a constant unchanging reality
A natural world free from the twisted reality of humankind
They were in a present filled only with the eternal reality of nature
In a world unconscious of death, a world of freedom and cyclical Divine laws.
What do they want to know of Plato’s Ideas or ideas of good government?
They are already living in a place of God’s heavenly peace and grace.
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