Then Knowledge is the Only Life

by Dan Gerber

Faustus suffered, not because he bargained away
his soul to possess all knowledge, but

because the bargain left him with no
new life to breathe, nothing left to learn.

You can’t see far into reflecting
water, and with a breeze, it’s

thousand-moon-lake dazzling
and glares you down into your

other senses, the perfume of music, the haunting
silence of bees,

the boat’s gentle rocking in the
field of stars you’re rowing on.