Jonah

While I thought myself a decent man
I was silent, though conscious, of course,
that men are not what they should be. That
was just the world, I thought,
the way things are, and all right with me
as long as I could stay out of the way.
And when I was afraid I took
precautions. No more. Now I know
what is to be feared and why
there are no precautions.

Listen: if you fear the sea
or anything that swims—
I was swallowed by the sea
and then by that which is in the sea
and is worse than the sea and what I found there
was God, still railing at me: Are you mine yet?
At last I was, and he let me go.

I say I thought myself a decent man.
I believe I was a decent man, as men go,
but oh how much better to die than to know
the truth. I have come to tell you this:
that we cannot die, that it is intolerable
that we should remain as we are,
that we must therefore
repent, repent, repent.