Watching snowflakes play,
Isn’t the same each day.
Softened by experience,
I am no longer –
Quick to exalt,
Eager to condemn –
For I have seen,
The limitations of truth.
Unrighted wrongs,
Wronged rights –
Wait,
Accumulate,
Muddling their confusions
Rewording their definitions –
Outside my door.
Carving colorful ruses,
“…but I had no choice”
Appeasing my conscience,
“…there was no other way” –
I have watched,
My courage fail.
Unwon battles –
Between borders, Half-writ histories,
Callous codes, Libelous labels;
Plead –
Waving white flags,
Crimson with blood.
Struggling to preserve
Steadiness of tone,
Cradling frozen fingers
In the dead of night –
I have known,
The power of fear.
So how should I presume?
And how should you presume?
Nor anyone else, ever, presume?
Watching snowflakes play,
Is indeed not, the same each day.
Jan 17th, 2010.
Isn’t the same each day.
Softened by experience,
I am no longer –
Quick to exalt,
Eager to condemn –
For I have seen,
The limitations of truth.
Unrighted wrongs,
Wronged rights –
Wait,
Accumulate,
Muddling their confusions
Rewording their definitions –
Outside my door.
Carving colorful ruses,
“…but I had no choice”
Appeasing my conscience,
“…there was no other way” –
I have watched,
My courage fail.
Unwon battles –
Between borders, Half-writ histories,
Callous codes, Libelous labels;
Plead –
Waving white flags,
Crimson with blood.
Struggling to preserve
Steadiness of tone,
Cradling frozen fingers
In the dead of night –
I have known,
The power of fear.
So how should I presume?
And how should you presume?
Nor anyone else, ever, presume?
Watching snowflakes play,
Is indeed not, the same each day.
Jan 17th, 2010.