To grandmothers everywhere I bring
the frightful truth: these things we
do and call human, they are the ways
of spirits too — forgetting, boasting,
procrastinating — even in the purest
reaches of the non-material worlds.
Lofty inhabitants there falter, are
prey to mortal vice: pride, greed, lust.
They have not transcended folly. It is
because they have not ceased trying to
transcend it. Moral infirmities are
still with them; despite our prayers
the heavens resound with evils not
unlike our own. For all their wonders
the gods are only human.