we have lost sight of allusion as a valuable toy
for poetry and stories
which describe the values of our civilization
the greeks had gods and their half-breed offspring,
noble heroes mortal, characters set in stone,
each expressed with statuary shades delicate among their many retellings
standby of the centuries, christianity,
inspired centuries of artists, who beat a dead dog
and beat all the life out of the bible
onto millions of parchaments, pillars, and canvases.
saints and jesus and eve
spilled out of their clothing, becoming highly recognized
symbols
and eventually
empty symbols.
pouring out all of god left us
with only man to empty
in the age of egoism and self,
after the time of religion,
man is scraped clean
and becomes in shorter time as dead as nietzsche's god.
we have gone from fallible gods to infallible men to infallible gods to fallible men.
and now we have nothing.