Vaticination, or The Betrothal

The wolf and the lamb will feed together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox...

They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain... 

—from Isaiah 65:25

And the crow will

fuse with starlings, learn of

murmuration.

Surpass us in the

wisdom of the skies.

Long after we have gone

comes Shangri-La.

There’s a reason it’s in the

massifs of Tibet. Rest that comes

too easy

isn’t earned. Knees without a

scrape? Can never fathom love.

See it on the cobbles

to Golgotha.

The way I kneel on stones—jagged

side facing up—a worm

that asks to wed. The mercy

of the talons

in the rain. The way a Gazan

rocks the infant

of a Jew.

And then there is the shark

that guides a school of

angelfish. The nudging of its

nose. With what other

way could I possibly

plead for your hand? One reaching 

in the leaves

for ruptured wings? To mend

and not purloin. Foregoing

your chance to flit

off to a fabled

lotusland.

Andreas Gripp

November 10, 2026

photograph: Westend61 / Getty Images