Characters Of Lead

Some people, to be politic,
Keep heavy words inside their head.
But, the full weight of such a word
Won’t dissipate when it’s not said.
Too, the lighter words they pick
Will seem as though they each have shed
Their meaning, since they will be heard
To name the famished as well-fed,
Or call dead-soil a flowering bed,
Instead of what all plainly see.
So, don’t set light lies in truth’s stead
As there’s a cost you will incur–
The irksome weight of truths unsaid!
For records of hypocrisy
Are writ in characters of lead
Which chafe one’s mind, you may be sure,
And make life something to endure.

The Broken Reed

Some lives are like the broken reed
Which in the bleakest winds has sighed
And whistled at what Fate decreed
So as to stoically elide
A future it has not agreed
Should be the one to which it’s tied.
It does not beg Grim Fate, nor plead
For the future He has denied,
Believing in the chance to lead
Its wanted life with Fate defied.