Sunday, July 22, 2018

The Day the Cheek Didn't Turn

Good always loses
          because it only has one side,
                    the truth that needs no defense.
Evil needs the dual,
          the invisible mirror, the forking line,
                    to show that you are not who you pretend,

That you are no different, in fact,
          than your enemy, who
                    loves you just the same,
And compels you with those petty
          deceptions of the partisan
                    to prove him wrong

Instead of tending, say, your garden,
         but you can never prove him wrong,
                    there are no words to save him
From hurting other people for an idea,
         diminishing the mind for a cause, throwing
                    truth on a bonfire if it promises justice.

The light dissolves all temporary things,
         makes poetry manifest.
                    To walk to it, can you turn away
From the glare, the not yet said,
         the victim in the shadows helpless
                    and needing to be wrong?