Perspective

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.