A poem for Bastille Day about how idealistic ends can inspire brutal means:
Good and honest people
can do evil
As just
ends can inspire brutal means.
In politics,
a saint can be a devil,
Calculating
what might be the level
Of
suffering the greater good redeems.
Good and
honest people can do evil
As
well-honed ideologies give ample
Right and
cause to murder for one's dreams.
In
politics, a saint can be a devil,
Romantic as
the idealistic rebel,
Tyrannical
as truth splits at the seams.
Good and
honest people can do evil,
Reducing
life's complexities to simple
Slogans
that are best conveyed by screams.
In
politics, a saint can be a devil,
More saint,
more devil, a hammer on an anvil
That shapes
the willing faithful into fiends.
Good and
honest people can do evil.
In
politics, a saint can be a devil.
©
by Nicholas Gordon
Audio and Video Music: Cantus
Firmus Monks. By Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions. Music free to use at
YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI
To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodan.html. For more poems for Bastille Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .
