It was all Virgil
Of course there were other ingredients
It wasn’t one of those made-with-real-chocolate deals
Like a few milligrams
Here was the heroic effort
Of transposing all the gravitas
All the supine virtuosity
All the instantiation of a noble theme
Into the key of a doctrinal purity
More regimental than even that of the pontifex
The more imposing for its insult
To the hard-won intellectual achievement
Of for example the Tuscan artist
That bursts into the light of day
And yet the cunning little mammals
Scurrying through the crepuscular understory
Persisted in their program of harrying
Eden’s empire’s megafauna