Sleeping on hard fissured ground, a spit of gravelly land,
Pan awakened into a nightmare.

Astronauts had landed on a world reassembling Earth.
Snow was melting in the mountains,
drowning a river's stately rocks.

On the other shore, scientists trained in
"matters of concern, not matters of fact,"
were fashioning the latest upgrade
of the "rough-hewn god."

 

 

 

a nightmare: See, J. Hillman, "An Essay on Pan." In, Pan and the Nightmare. New York, 1972.
matters of concern: B. Latour, “Matters of Fact, Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry, Winter 2004
rough-hewn god: W.R. Irwin, “The Survival of Pan.” PMLA, June 1961.