After Acts 24
I’m
bored. This is boring.
What
I must endure to rule
these
stiffnecked people,
listening
to stupid disputes,
constantly
arguing over
their
religious laws and rules
like
angry birds. And
this
Tarsian demolishes
their
stupidity with a glance,
a
word, a small gesture,
an
expression on his face
suggesting
he, too, has heard
all
this before. I should set him
free
solely for easing my boredom,
along
with some recompense
suitable
to my position.
The
more he talks, the more,
inexplicably,
my concern
grows.
I am a Roman,
a
governor appointed by Caesar,
in
Rome a man of position and
wealth,
and this follower of the way
in
this backwater, this privy
of
the empire, fills me
with
unnamed fear.
Illustration: Paul before Felix by
William Hogarth.
