on passion would
seem like a sin, but
salvation's
not about that—it's
all your offhand
choices and
run-of-the-mill opinions
which, at long last,
coalesce into
the voice of pure reason:
every last advantage you have
will have to be abandoned,
for, when all
chained together, even they
will constrain you.
And you can't use a chain
to pull your
virtue, anyway;
you must
get behind and push it;
grow through sin—
slow as old Issa's
young snail did;
take the levelest
possible road
to the top of this world's
tallest mountain.
