Victorinus, the Manichaean Sower of Malliana

Victorinus preached to free pearls trapped in soil So plants may grow and unearth all bright pearls To bring pearls back to their home through light’s secrets Secrets for the downtrodden and dirty Not to the high and hearts made of polished stone The secrets of the garden of light and rest The garden veiled in heaven’s lambent light The high and hearts of stone were not given sight So that they would see, but would not peer through So that they would hear, but would not listen to The garden’s seeds were only for fertile soil Though the soil was prowled by wolves and sparrows These seeds were not scattered among roads of stone lest sparrows swoop down and consume them And would squawk to alert wolves to the lone sheep The coming winter wind blew over the fields And it scattered some seed on the stone roads The thorn-ridden stone roads near the Field of Blood Alerting the sparrows that roamed this world To a sower spreading seeds dressed in white robes Earth itself quaked under the sparrows squawking Thunder rolled in through the sparrows black wings Blocking out the white moon and alarmed the wolves While the roads shined with thirty silver stars Proud in the starlight peering through the veil As he watched fruits grow under a lamp’s light Seeing then the yellow eyes of the wolves Seeing then the thorn-ridden roads with his seeds He knew his bright sun was about to set So pronounced this confession as his sunset “I confess that I am no wolf like all you I confess I’m a sower of this land I confess Mani and the lamb sent me here I confess that I’m just a hearer of lambs I confess I truly serve these lambs, not you” With the penetrating winter wind blowing His heart briefly fell from his light-filled mind With stuttering lips, he rashly spurted out “Lead me in the ways on being a wolf” He lips said all this , but his mind remained still The wolves were angry at this perceived insult Horrified that a sheep walked with them veiled They chose to have his legs ripped off by their teeth And his white robes were torn off by their claws But they were not hungry for blood at that time So they placed the mauled sheep on a blood-stained raft To drift far away from Malliana Only if he told the wolves the homes of sheep Then he would be taught the way of the wolves And be allowed to live with them as a wolf At the last, the new sun rose over the mauled Victorinus Only the garden of light and rest found him with white pearls thus