Self-Service

Who Do You Serve? - VI

When all seems venal, honor bought for brass,
And service sworn with but an eye to self --
When service is to grasp and hold, to heighten one's own glory
In reflected splendor, not to surrender
To a righteous mastery, but venture rudderless
Upon a mercenary quest and find such company
As suits the moment, serving only when and where
The gain to self is greatest --
What mystery is served, what knowledge gained
From this apprenticeship?And who is lord and master?
I kneel and choose the golden chain of servitude
By which I live, by which I die to be reborn in perpetuity --
In which I find godly reflection in a greater eye.
Master is he who by himself hath mastered been,
Hath embraced all, and in this truth embraced
Hath ceded separate sense of errant seeking,
Finding greater Self to serve.