Contradictions

Every life has contradictions.
Somewhere between the “yes” and the “no”
in the midst of “maybe” and “perhaps”
there lives an infamous note of discord
that takes sinister delight in pitting
word against word,
confounding fact with fiction,
creating intersections of impasse,
and “No Way Out” boulevards of bluster
and bravado.

To live in the world of “either-or”
is to feather discord’s nest. The
distance between opposites is
measured by the relics of sincere
people who tried to walk through
the quicksand of compromise.

Every life has contradictions.
But the rent is too high in that neighborhood.
Talking “at” is different than talking “with”
and hearing is not the same as listening.
Caution to you who have answers but do
not know the questions, whose ignorance is
confused with intelligence, who cry “Fear!”
into the darkness of prejudice and watch
as we throw off the cloak of Principle
in order to play in the sandbox of
our own self-interest.

Contradictions, conceived by the lust
of political power or religious rigidity,
may define the moment, but they also
gerrymander justice and truth in order
to enjoy the collision of minds determined
to dominate or destroy.