The Well of Souls

Down in their dark, and fetid, pit 

The well frogs sing and glumly sit. 

They live contented, darkly damp 

Croaking praise to their well-top lamp 

Viewing the world through a narrow hole 

As short of sight as the earthy mole 

Their minds grew narrow, lacking light 

New and strange brought no delight. 

A frog who knew the world beyond 

Had fallen from a wind-touched frond

Plunging to eternal doom 

Trapped within this narrow gloom 

Her fate from many years before 

Was now the stuff of froggy lore 

The half-remembered truths she told 

Into cosmic myths they'd mold. 

 

And now the truth of primal frog 

Was lost inside dogmatic fog 

All frogs knew that far beyond 

Lay the heavenly world of ... Pond. 

 

Some said that on a still clear night 

The sound of Pond you'd hear, you might. 

But what all frogs knew for a fact: 

The means to visit Pond they lacked. 

 

The light and Pond were for the dead, 

So the frog chant rightly said 

Their fetid pit was life-long price 

To spend forever somewhere nice 

 

Down into the well flew flies 

Who hummed in praise of wider skies 

Who told of endless world, immense, 

Bright and free - not darkly dense. 

 

By night frogs sang of the hand on high 

That sent down food from dark blue sky 

They praised with all their visionless hearts 

The power above their lowly parts. 

 

Tales were told of the questioning few 

Rumours spread from those who knew 

Whispered quiet from mouth to ear 

Tales the elders cursed with fear. 

 

Those who asked too loud of light 

Had eyes poked out to help their sight 

Right thinking frogs had a single voice 

'Better blind than make wrong choice.' 

 

And daily came their feast of flies 

Handed down from heavenly skies 

The flies hummed tunes of open space 

And frogs ate flies to show their grace. 

 

Risking life and six-fold limb 

To spread the word to the darkly dim 

The flies gave all and set it naught 

To save one frog in dogma caught 

 

The flies knew how the world revolved 

To rescue all the lost, resolved 

By meteoric living, short 

To those with minds, they amply taught. 

 

Down below in their half-lit mirk 

Each elder frog appeared to smirk. 

While up above, flies hummed of Hell 

And warned the world 'gainst the froggy well. 

  [Dedicated to fundamentalists of every shade].