He listens and he waits, year after year,
with those who dare not listen while they talk,
to careful speeches engineered by fear,
the black fear of the lame who die to walk;
Easing the birth of history long past,
Reminding pain of thought, and thought of pain,
he shows his children jewels they have cast
and must devour if they would live again.

What does it cost a man to be so patient?
What restraint to hold himself in check?
What joy lost, understanding joy denied?
      To not judge takes constant hesitation;
To not fight he fights his own reflex;
To live, he needs a laughing child inside.