Flowers Set on Tables: Chapter One (of 4)**

Flowers Set on Tables

 

An Ambivalent Take

On the Multitude[1]

 

-By Charles E. Tenenbaum-

 

-CHAPTER 1-

 

And I saw that flowers were set on tables

In the Great Hall, according to my wishes.

 

And I was pleased to see that those I favor

Were among those that were chosen -

 

Some that were pleasant to look upon,

To smell, and to touch with my hand -

But others that pleased me

 

Inwardly

And deeply.

 

So, I thanked my servants

For having satisfied my wishes,

Though I knew from the beginning,

(As they knew from the beginning)

That my hopes would be fulfilled.

 

And I rejoiced in the knowledge

That I had blessed my servants

 

In all the ways that

Would please them;

 

And that my servants

Had received my love

 

With the satisfaction

Of having pleased me.

 

So, I left the sanctuary of the Great Hall

To walk among the multitude,

Confident that my servants

Were happy in my love,

And I, in their love.

 

Yet I could not keep pace with the many,

As I feared where they would lead me.

 

For the multitude was

Indifferent to my fellowship,

And pressed hard against me,

 

Which caused me to stumble

And, at length, to heavily fall.

 

But each time that I fell, I rose up

And continued to walk among the many,

Not fearing the press of their shoulders.

 

But now, a blind man stumbled before me,

And I stumbled in his stumbling,

And others stumbled on me

 

And mocked the one

Who stumbled

Before me.

 

And I said to myself,

 

“The blind man walks as he walks,

And the others walk as they walk.”

 

But those who stumbled at my heels

Overheard the things that I said

 

And began to mock me �"

 

And that caused me to stumble once more

On the one who stumbled before me.

 

So, I turned to look at the faces

Of those who scorned me -

 

That they might know

The harshness of my eyes,

And the steel of my judgment.

 

But I saw that those who mocked me,

Looked beyond me when I turned �"

Oblivious to the blade before them.

 

So, I pushed these men aside

And took the arm of the one

Who stumbled before me.

 

And we spoke of the Great Hall

Where flowers are set on tables.

Author's Note

“Flowers Set on Tables” may best convey the poet’s ambivalence toward humanity. He said that its mystic narrator is based on his childhood recollections of an elderly widower and shoe store owner who occasionally came over for dinner and ping-pong on Sunday afternoons. He described this teacher as “a kind of other-worldly grandfather, comprised of hilarious insights and reasonably good intentions.”