Courage is not the absence of fear
But more often the absence of choice
All the great acts of bravery done
Not by the brave—who is brave?
If there’d been a chance to run, to hide
They’d have done it and been forgotten
No choice was given to these fate-chosen heroes
So the fear was faced
The feat complete
Their seal upon humanity
The choice was not to live or to die
(How easy would be so to opt)
Rather the choice was to die or to die
Die well or die ill (with remorse)
Then in one blurry moment of suicidal craze
Against the strangling odds
They struck out and offered their body as forfeit
To death, the first, the quicker
Then found him like fate
Strangely, strangely like fate
Erratically benevolent
To give it all back in one chilling blow
Their lives and their loves and their fame
Die with face full into the wind?
As proud as an old mountaineer?
Or die in shame’s flight?
Last moments frozen forever?
In a terrified, petrified fossil?
The stone of the past doth keep all things well
What tales! What tales it will tell!
