SALISBURY PERSPECTIVES POEM 28

The sun has relented and relief comes to all.

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"Cowardice is the most terrible of vices." Mikhail Bulgakov

Parting

To lose is to win if one is to gain freedom,

A separation of parts is to lose traction,

As if a cog had lost its spoke estranged,

Unable to turn without its hasty master.

It is so at first on parting as if the mechanism,

Were slow or faulty for familiarity is ease,

As well as contempt and disdain,

For so it turns for us but for a while.

After the mending of the gait unsure at first,

We find our heart meanders once more,

Towards another object useful and able,

Alight with the fire of the brave.

It is not long that one can hurt,

For there is nothing that will scar,

The mend itself heals and quickens,

The heart once more mended,

As if the hurt were never there.

"You say: I am not free. But I have raised and lowered my arm. Everyone understands that this illogical answer is an irrefutable proof of freedom." Leo Tolstoy