The Emissary

By Cliff Lake

 

The Emissary

 

The Emissary was carefully chosen and prepared:

Sent to the conqueror’s homeland,

He was to appear affable,

Conciliatory,

Helpful,

And welcoming of the overlords.

A traitor.

What benefit could such a one provide?

How to help the land of his birth?

Certainly, he could placate the tyrant,

For a time perhaps.

Would that were enough.

For a despot soon tires of the toadying,

The simpering and groveling,

The obeisance and scraping,

And knowing a man

To have foresworn his birthright,

For a chance at his own comfort,

Even for the shortest time,

Would insure soon that man’s time,

Was indeed short.

Therefore, the Emissary was carefully chosen and prepared,

For it was known

He would break bread with the captor,

And drink of their wine,

And visit their markets,

And lay with their women,

And be among them as freely as allowed,

And be one with them.

An Emissary friendly to them,

Craven and weak,

Fawning and flattering,

And adoptive of his new asylum,

And embracive of his new compatriots.

Most of all,

To be embracive of these countrymen.

For before being collected by the oppressor,

He spent a fortnight in the company of lepers,

And associated with the ill and the dying,

And toured the plague camp,

And carried with him death delayed,

And hidden in his very flesh,

And went willing to his new home,

And made merry with the rulers…

The Emissary was carefully chosen,

And carefully prepared…

 

Cliff Lake 7/23/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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