S.E.W. Smith
Some will hate you, you know.
Some will see you
and mistake civility
for weakness.
Their fault? Not likely.
Your task to endure it?
That is not an easy answer.
You could do so much.
Your power over that hateful child
is transitory,
but real
for just long enough
Should you choose
to say
yes.
Perhaps you should never catalog
the injuries
you endure
Nor those you could
inflict.
Perhaps, instead, you should remember –
Remember not what he said
to your face
or what
she wrote
to her vacuous friends.
Remember, instead, that you
stand
in their way –
A signpost, a traffic cone, a toll booth, a bridge.
Perhaps you are a lowly pothole
Which they can only curse
in impotence and rage
As they drive beyond you
on their way
to a well-earned
wreck.
You should Remember
that more traffic
is, even now, arrived,
And you will not be
the same
To any of them
As you were
To that enraged,
now distant,
speeder.
Remember you are Proteus,
changing even as new eyes fall upon you.
Remember you are Water,
filling the vessels
that wander past,
half-full or half-empty.
Remember that you Are,
Not winking out of time and space
because they do not think
of you;
You Are,
and you must remain so,
because there is no mirror
as cracked
and Fun-house wrong
as a child.
Remember that you Are
and remain so.
Some will hate you,
and to many
You will leave
no lasting mark.
But a bird need only
find
one tree
safe enough
and it can build its nest.
Remember, and take root.