a man

A MAN
No man
can call himself
a man
until he has
been broken

No man
is a true man
if the echoes
of his pain
do not make him
weep

A man can sail
across many oceans
but the deepest
journey
will be across
the ocean within

A man may stand
and claim
and justify
but this means
nothing
in the courts
of heaven

The world
has been raped
and blooded
by so many
who will never
understand
what it means
to know truth
and ache for it
not to be true

Success is
measured
with a pointed sword

Dreams are ignored
and the future
is lesser without them

In this world of strife
the man of peace
is seen as weak
the man of integrity
of no use

Men have forgotten
what women still see

I kneel at the Cross
once again
while the pain
of injustice
screams within

Stephen