Apocalypse

Of all sixty of us I am the only one who went

to the four corners though I don't say it

out of pride but more like a type of regret,

and I did it because there was no one I truly believed

in though once when I climbed the hill in Skye

and arrived at the rough tables I saw the only other

elder who was a vegetarian--in Scotland--

and visited Orwell and rode a small motorcycle

to get from place to place; and I immediately

stopped eating fish and meat and lived on soups;

and we wrote each other in the middle and late fifties

though one day I got a letter from his daughter

that he had died in an accident; he was

I'm sure of it, an angel who flew in midair

with one eternal gospel to proclaim

to those inhabiting the earth and every nation;

and now that I go through my papers every day

I search and search for his letters but to my shame

I have even forgotten his name, that messenger

who came to me with tablespoons of blue lentils.