<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><font size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Lao-Tzu’s Day Job</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 21px;">...<i>may have held the position of archive-keeper</i></span><i style="font-size: 21px;"><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">in one of the petty kingdoms of the time.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Stephen Mitchell, trans., Tao Te Ching. </span><br></i><br style="font-size: 21px;"><br style="font-size: 21px;"><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Just the fact of it, the daily going there</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and rummaging in records or </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">waiting on the arrogance of some princeling – </span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I see it as if lit by east-facing windows, and so </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">growing darker as the day goes by, the aging Master </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">servant of papers and pigeon holes.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Dust is the medium. Scrolls of it, stroked and looped</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">by the inked brushes of scribes, and maybe </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">by his own hand too, chronicling</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">the strut and chaff of history</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">marked down as if it mattered,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">a hundred troops here, a thousand there.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It is not his day job but the fact of it </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">that liberates me. How in pauses </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">of long afternoons growing shaded,</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">darker and darker as day outside brightens</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">like paradox around him, perhaps stillness </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">brings his hand to another page, some notes</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">for writing out tonight. He knows the habits </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">of the lords he serves, when they steal off for naps </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">or dalliances. He sees this as his freedom.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But then, he sees everything as freedom.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">He does not chafe at the meager men</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">with expensive silks and foolish demands.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">He bends, he allows, he thrives </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">like a plant of the deep forest, content</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">under their highnesses.</span></font><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="5"><br></font></span></div><div><font size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">David Oates</span></font></div></div></div></body></html>