Quis Desiderio... Poem by Morgan Michaels

What boundaries ought modesty set upon
grief for so dear a soul, tell us, Muse,
whom the Father bids breathe through the
kithera fluent song.

So it's true, Virgil, my friend: the
sleep neverending hath taken our Varus:
Truth and Faith to Justice turn to learn
when such a one will come again.

Many mourn him bitterly but none
more bitterly than you, love;
worthiest to beseech them him, in vain you
threaten the heavens, for,

should your entreaties move even in-
sensible trees to tears, like Orfeo's, they
could never coax warm blood back to veins
of one the Shepherd of the

Dead marshalls to darkness, thick and eternal.
What can't be changed must be endured-
in that light temper grief with acceptance and bear
what must be borne with patient heart.

Horace i/24