Rescued

Come, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

By the waters of Babylon
barehanded we built
with bricks and sand we built,
by the waters of Babylon
we built a gateway to the gods.

By the waters of Babylon
barehanded we built
with stones from the river
ground and glued,
by the waters of Babylon
we gloried in the power
of blood, veins, viscera
we gloried in human strength, size
and in our deep despising
of the gods.

By the waters of Babylon
barehanded we built--
three and forty years of
unending struggle
earnest grasping toward the upper world,
by the waters of Babylon
we built until we reached the stars
and were called home

by a fist swaddled
in lambswool.

(Image: Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel)