For What it's Worth

Common fallacy,
you see what you want to see.
Call it disillusionment,
but is it permanent,
this anger burning up inside your soul?
Get a wider lens, adjust the picture,
and see the whole.
Is it depravity that leads us to fight,
and to crave, and to desire?
Lord knows, we've all been burned by the fire
of someone's lies, or someone's pride,
or our own dignity.
How do you walk on, or sit down,
or fight the good fight
when no one will agree with what's wrong
and what's right?
If it's a moral code, let's get the facts straight.
I'm tired of your theories.
Your theories lack weight for such an argument
as the condition of the heart.
Why is there hate?
Why is there pain?
Why are there lies and trusts betrayed?
Can we get to the source?
Can we get to the cure?
Psychologists scratch their heads
while the media flashes more of the same.
What's the end game?
Can a person truly change
when history acts like a road map
to the same tired road?
Let me lighten that load.
It was never yours to bear.
Over coffee, a few will gather
to make sense of a world turned so cruel.
You can hear them try to reason,
and process, and explain it so neat and tidy.
It's Christmas, you know.
Let's not forget to wrap everything up and tie it with a bow.
That would be swell if only it was a permanent mend;
If every heartbreak would heal and every heartache would end.
If the colors of the season and the merriment and good tidings
could foster an exuberance for life that all could know,
we'd be a character of a Charles Dickens novel,
vowing to remember to spread cheer wherever we go.
The harsh reality is that sometimes even a smile is a hard thing to offer.
In a world so twisted can we cling to hope?
Would that help us cope?
Can we cling to a phrase sung out by choirs of angels,
echoing, "Peace on Earth"?
In view of His mercy, can we cling to what is good?
For what it's worth, it would be worth it if we could.

AEJ 12/22/14