Apollonius of Tyana

Surrounding her is cloudy divination.
She learned from India, Egypt, Canaan
The mysteries of the purple occult.
Then, was she raptured? A perfect philosopher?
Before the Judge, whose sharp sentence was death
Did she disappear into the gold abyss?

Or, is it as one true prophet said,
Christ is wedded to death? To conquer it.---
Knowledge of the certainties of this life,
The certainties of the algebra, of
All matter which is governed by its law…
Did this make the perfect philosopher?

Then, I, entwined by death, like the Fable’s
Hero, wish to be so and disappear 
At judgment.