The Sea of Uncertainty

On the ISLE OF CERTITUDE,
Citizens display an omnipresent Scarlet “A”
On class rings, tie-died T-shirts, and baseball caps,
On amulets, billboards, and street signs.
ORTHODOX gets rid of budding queries,
Corrects language, and enforces laws.
Libraries overflow with Scriptures,
Creeds, and how-to books.
ANSWERS gives guided tours of chiseled tombstones:
THOUGHT, CONJECTURE, DISCUSSION,
And the most fearsome, QUESTIONS.

HERESY laps at the shores
Where bikini-clad DOCTRINES
Lounge on CANONICAL blankets
Beneath ECCLESIASTICAL umbrellas,
Sending siren calls across the waves:
“Come back.” “Be safe.” “Be saved.”

From a parapet atop the city wall,
North, south, east, and west,
DOGMA scans the SEA OF UNCERTAINTY,
Tracking vessels named FEARLESS and INTREPID,
Riding100-foot crests of HOPE,
Disappearing in troughs of DESPAIR.

The SEA teems with Questions:
Whale questions, Minnow questions,
Shark questions, Gold fish questions
That animate the lone ADVENTURER
Who navigates the tides of TOLERANCE
Over reefs of TRADITION,
Unwraps gifts from mixed bags
Of the UNKNOWN and the UNKNOWABLE,
The mariner tastes delights and mysteries
As winds waft welcome waves of DOUBT
Across the SEA OF UNCERTAINTY.