DO YOU FEAR THE TRUTH?

(A reply)

1

I have no fear of truth,

Nor when it's stated as a lie,

Statements without proof,

Are the untruths of you and I.

Assumption is not truth,

And opinion is lacking fact,

Belief is speculation,

That insecure thoughts attract.

There is of course YOUR truth,

Then of course there's MINE,

But neither without proof,

Meet the value of a dime.

So tell me of this wondrous truth,

That I fear to define.

2

Is it that which might suit you,

That fits your biased thought,

Or that prisoners are all beaten,

Whenever they are caught?

Is it knowledge from a document,

That has a legal stamp,

Or a hunch that it’s more prominent,

Beneath a speculative lamp.

Is it something you believe to be,

Or something that is real,

Or were you persuaded by assumption,

Or by something you just feel.

Or do you mock me for satisfaction,

To heighten your appeal.

3

I have faced poverty and prejudice,

I have seen my friends die,

I have faced loneliness and losses,

Still I can look you in the eye.

I was born in war and fought in war,

And saw men wither in the parks,

Saw them dying in the ally ways,

While people fed the Doves and Larks.

I bathed them in cool water,

While they lay dying in my care,

I've faced the dread of foul disease,

And the Devil in his lair,

Yet the ignorance increases,

In those who have never known despair.

4

I drive through country places,

Where I see children in the streets,

Sniffing glue and dying,

From where the Journalist retreats.

I see prisons filled with black folk,

While their children sit and play,

Among the garbage cans and Dog shit,

In the heat of a Summer day

I send money to Ethiopia,

Study Serbia and much more,

And wonder why no one cares,

For the truth they claim to store.

Where Smugness never pleasing,

Is something I deplore.

5

Please lead me to this parlor,

Where this TRUTH is that I fear,

I shall face it without armor,

I shall leave behind my spear.

I will wrap my arms around it,

And hug it to my breast,

I will plant it, grow it breed it,

For I'll have finalized my quest.

But you really cannot show me,

Though you all but say I lie,

Tis perhaps you who most fear it,

For I only have one reply,

That the only truth I really know ,

Is that one day I will die.

© Colin F Jones 10/23/2004

Awarded 26 October 2004