Sudden impacts
and slow, incremental increases in pressure
often have the same outcome.
Shattered.
Smashed.
Pulverized to dust.
Fractured.
Wasted.
Never again whole.
There’s an insidious edge
that we all must creep along.
Thin, like early winter ice
traversed at our peril.
We deny ourselves,
for we equate loneliness with bravery.
We turn aside friends,
because we fear the beast is weak
and we are merely weaker.
Tired.
Extinguished.
Ground down.
By the tedious words
of charlatans,
cowards
and yes-men.
Worn thin
and faded in the light,
even our shadows
show through,
like faded memories,
or recycled funeral shrouds.
We are the backbone of nations.
We will never succumb.
Even at our weakest concentrations;
we are lethal.
We are the protecting hand,
the nurturing love.
The first to be hated,
disposed of,
derided,
but always the last to leave the battlefield.
We are bedtime stories
that ward off creatures of the night.
We are strong arms
and firm chests
and rough hands
that caress with intensity.
That hold and enfold
and cradle
and support;
never neglecting,
abandoning,
or betraying.
The world of a thousand adversaries
is our habitat.
We evolved from war and fire.
We learned the Word and the Ghost
and built the great library,
that was razed again
when ignorance held sway,
but we grew from ash.
Germinated in ruin
and borne of violence.
We persevere endlessly.
We are imperfect diamonds,
flawed from creation,
but shaped perfectly by our duty.
HG – 2016
