Foundation Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The Foundation

When we went to school aeons ago
Christianity and life were easy for a teacher and us.
Jesus on his cross and a disappearing act
Daniel, fighting ogres and lions.
Pupils didn't believe anything of this
but it passed the time waiting for the school day to end
jumping on our bikes and playing cowboys and Indians
those who lived in America.
But a residue of what we were told stuck
I have been thinking of religion's origin before
the told stories, entertaining as they were.
I think we need the abstraction of an afterlife
(Not aftershave)
When the man rose above the struggle, the leisure
to think, is this all?
There must be more can't end like this, forever
be dead; God was the rallying cry we gave him life
and spun an endless yarn.