What is Flight, and Why Fight?

Look about me and you will see why it is
That I choose not to speak in front of his
Friends, his cronies, his bully heavy weights
That push and pull like shifting train car freights.
Is it not preferable to dwell in
The shadow's where you are safer? Therein
Shall you find peace, and not a drop of sweat
Shall fall from your brow; their distance is kept
As a banker keeps his interest high,
As a man who asks the question of why.
Yet you shall rue the day in your heart, will
Be overcome by a grief that will still
Your blood as a dam stills the flowing stream.
The flowing waters will not longer team
With life, variety of goods sacred
To the land that is now steeped in hatred.
But if you should stand as a mountain, firm,
You should find yourself unable to turn;
Even as the breeze pushes on a ledge
You would not give in or renounce your pledge.
So look about you once more and tell me,
What is it in this place you truly see?
Is it a man who sits in the chair of light?
Or a monster who tries to cause a fright?
Do his friends, those bullies, and heavy weights
Cause you to step back from the open gate?
Fear shall remain as long as you do dread
The pain and turmoil; but should you instead
Take it upon yourself to remake them,
To overcome their ways and berate them,
Despite the blows you will surely take in
By the anger and rage of their own sin,
Then you will have a peace that is most pure,
And will not leave you, will not, as sure
As the scars that you receive will not budge
So too will the peace remain as a sludge;
Yet more wholesome is this sludge, tonic drink
That lets you fall into a deep sleep, sink
Into a feathery pillow of bliss,
In it you receive the breath of life's kiss.
So look around you, and weigh in your luck,
Lest you fall back and forever be stuck
In your old habits, old ways, and old tricks;
There is nothing like routine's hand that sticks.
Thus the conflict between and man and fear
Has always been present is always near.

                         What is Flight? And Why Fight? (c) Luke Bennette, May 2012