The hero

You, who killed the innocent
Who froze the heart to do the deed
Who made yourself the instrument
To bring a nation to its knees
Contemplate your own position
When you cut yourself in two
Meditate on your decision
Which half do you keep of you?
Is it the hero of the cause
Or the cur who hid the bomb?
Where little children came to walk
Then sought the safety of his home?
Did you stand in the firing line
And dare the bullet to your space
Or did you shoot him from behind
A mask to hide your hero's face
Did you stand in bright sunlight
And scream defiance to the world
Or did you creep in quiet of night
To kill the man, the boy, the girl?
Did you ask for yourself the right
To tell the world your point of view
Then kill another man that night
Who thought the opposite of you?
When all of this is in the past
And you have found your Holy Grail
When you stand before the crowd
Will you tell your Hero's tale?

Reviews

[Einstein Noodle]

oooooooo sharp bite says i! i like the perspective and story telling ... really find these lines powerful:
"Did you ask for yourself the right
To tell the world your point of view
Then kill another man that night
Who thought the opposite of you?"
I think this goes straight to the core ... poking at a coward's misconception of self .. you are keeping it real in "The hero" ... nice title too by the way .. fitting that the "h" in hero is not in upper case
E.

[William Michael Reeves]

Wow!! I always go back to the beginning when I read someone new. To find this in light of it all right now is amazing. You should feature this. 'Which half do you keep of you' really caught me. Which half of our independence do we keep? Our society? Which half of the school do we sacrifice when our heroes can't be heroic? Powerful stuff!

[John the Baptist]

There are both light and dark sides to all of us. Perhaps that is what the poet is telling us here.