I hope you’ll listen carefully
As I lay out the hard truth about my enemy.
He is charming and kind
Attractive and affable
Good-humored and clever
Generous and frugal
Intelligent and wise
Creative and resourceful
Helpful and proactive
Responsible and conscientious
Diligent and successful in his career
A loving and devoted husband and father
A man about whom there are many things to love.
That God makes himself vulnerable—
That he puts himself out there, available to be abused—
Is surely a stumbling block to those
Who find exposure a disagreeable policy
For their own lives.
Funny how a grown man
Can be pouting on the inside
So deep down that he will never
Realize it in a hundred grouchy years—
And if you asked him he’d probably
Deny it—clueless soul that he is—
Unless he goes down there
On purpose to find out
For himself what’s
The problem.
And then
After he has
Seen it he can
Cut it out and get
On with the growing
He had grinched himself
Out of —all the time thinking
Himself more mature than that.
The American love of freedom is a curious affair
Since we are not nearly as free from tyranny
As we like to think we are—
And as we have so much more freedom to think
Than we ever seem to use.
