Back to index

Quo Vadis
By Laura Shrader

I watch a cold moon rise
Gently over a distant hill.
The stars are to me only breathless sighs
The night a dreamless, silent sleep.

Where tread your sandaled feet now
Where leads steel sword and noble helm
Do you see the same clear moon
Resting low on the lonely horizon?

I hear a whisper on the air
It speaks to me, I know not how.
A sad voice, lost and searching
Haunting, reaching, yet falling away…

Quo vadis….quo vadis….

Quo vadis my husband, my soldier
Where are you going this night?
A year now since you left
To fight a foe I cannot see,
An enemy I neither know nor understand.
I find I comprehend little now
For the world seems so confused.
The voice speaks on…

Quo vadis!

I pray each day, each night, each moment
For your protection, your safe return.
But what is this purpose that keeps you from me;
What cause dictates my heart ache so?
I cannot see! I am blind in a cruel darkness.
And the gods, they give no answer
To a burning soul that begs them, tell her

Quo vadis Romani?

Quo vadis, my people, quo vadis?
I have no answer.
No more to give than the silent oracles.
My mind is a barren wasteland.
You fight your wars, to what end?
Where are you going? For what do you strive?

I think of you, my love, tonight
As I search my inmost heart
I search, but I falter; I reach but fall.
Something aches, makes my soul to bleed.
What hides, what causes me to stumble?

Veritas….veritas….

Our orators, wise philosophers of Rome
They say to the city and the world
"Fight on! In life there is purpose.
Strive and do not falter!"
Fight, strive for what? Do you know?
Lo, a voice on the wind!

Veritas!

Alas, good men, teach me, show me
What does it mean? I do not know!
What do I search for in the dark
What eludes my weary grasp?
Can you tell my searing soul?

Quid est veritas?

Veritas! Truth! God in heaven
I know not even what truth is.
Can you touch it, feel it, sense it?
Does it speak, or leave you to wonder
In blindness and obscurity?

I am lost, I do not know.
Come back to me
For one thing I know is true:
My heart is yours, it lives for you.
This one truth remains in the emptiness.

My love is true where all else fails.