NATURAE | Page 4

mute shards of infant light . Likewise scorching sun shrivels not pure kernels . What?s Good by far possesses sturdier base than mutating humour . Yet I shan?t deprive you of your request . On Vice I have these on it . In hushed secrecy Truth is muffled beneath distracting mien . Where misdeeds lurk there are few confessors . Vice . Treasures dubiously sprung . Fillips of questionable pedigree overlooked in mid frenetic jollification . Picaresque wranglings bear surrepticious delight . Fruits of strange origin overcome tongues with sweetness acquired bitterly from those aggrieved . I pray that I have abated your curiosity .?DAY: Indeed !?NIGHT: Having quenched your first thirst , I bid you, speak of Virtue . DAY: A foil made to counter Vice ! Virtue soldiers on untempted by enticements procured by Vice , from tainted intentions proffered . Pain of sacrifice smarts . Transient . Far worse to drink from the chalice of Vice , suffer censure and lifelong penance . Virtue , fount of fine attributes . Guardian of innocence . Bastion of moral consciousness . Virtue?s the sublime awareness that winnows knave from noble . Bequeaths those deserving with legitimate trophies . Their bounty swell with honours honourably won and deeds nobly done .?NIGHT: I see that much still lodge in your mind like a bursting powder keg you are . You have a willing pair of ears and a flint for your powder in me . DAY: You have discerned well . Amusing it is to know that Night has clairvoyant sight ! I have laid sight on debilitating Despair . Droves of souls lie prostrate . Mowed by Doubt . Despair drapes its cloak over Hope . Stifling garotte which asphyxiates optimistic Faith . This slate implodes upon itself and spares no refrain in dejected denial . Clouding up mood of others with plaintive pestilence . What else are you Despair ? An abyss that impel those hopelorn over the precipice . Propel average souls towards uncharacteristic foolhardiness in their desperation . While the scales of Justice weigh Circumstance and Consequence , Life reels from the outrage. What of you Night ? Have you saving grace for these souls ? NIGHT: I have . Faith?s the obstinate flame unbowed even though adversity threatens to douse earnest efforts . A shaft that leads out of the pit . Secret aspirations whispered to ourselves . A place we dare visit amid private reverie?s vision with a longing contrary to present inconvenience . A bulwark Faith is . It controverts scattering fickleness . Surety in spirit against floundering facades for Faith invigorates mortal hearts with obdurate conviction .?DAY: A saving grace and no less eloquent ! My cousin the clairvoyant ! Yet I wish to add , there are those who fear still the onset of Night . It is sight that is frail and sight that is oft at fault . Illuminated by daylight , leafless branches are leaden exceptions against plush terraces . ?neath scanty light of Night , those same branches appear like unsheathed ghostly daggers , suspended at menacing height . Buoyed by safety in numbers , masked by scarce light , formidable silhouettes , agitators of patience , crucibles of resolve , teasers of courage , all charge boldly . How one wishes for guardian gargoyles to smite these preying spectres ! Friends and foes blurred by garbled silhouettes . Proximity reveal tardily or opportunely . Outcome rests on gifts of deftness and speed .?NIGHT: Hold still there ! I do bear comfort too ! For those who shun the sun at its midday prime , the evening phase becomes their chosen juncture to emerge and gaze at day without braving sting of heat or pallor of a tan . I spare their sight from instinctively squinting . Moisten not their clothing with noon swelter . The Day is the more boisterous portion of the two . Suburbs and metropolis reverberate with industrious din . Smoke stacks increase exhaust density . In the desert , Day misleads sight while I undeniably obscure . Sunlight sparks upon the sand as flickering mirages confound . Night?s dark cape is sloughed off friends and foes . Under lighted lucidity , shadows of doubt evaporate . Come Day , speak of eagles and bats in your time !?DAY: Preying eagles flex their talons . With wings outstretched , unhinge themselves off the ledge , into flight . Daybreak presages an outward course towards feeding fields . Bats wing toward cavernous habitats . Seeking shelter from Sunlight?s blaze and daylong repose . What of bats and eagles at dusk , my cousin ??NIGHT: Regal eagles rest pinions and talons . Hunting time is past . Declining light presages a homeward course to their roost