Gallantry

A poem dedicated to two very brave people I know:

Lost, lost, and I am lost

In a world that prompts us to ask why?

We, him and I, are misplaced in the wood

I say lost, yet lost is a witful bantered synonym

For what could be called to conceal

What we must from whom we must.

We have vanished from others view,

Cannot be found except by those who know

Where we are. The rest, hostile to our wishes

Can ask where we are, Ha! They

Cannot find us. We are invisible.

What a plan gone wrong. Now found

Out and imprisoned. Again must

We ask the question ‘why?’

Some seem to think we have no minds

With which to employ our thought and opinion

Over who should have the right

To decide whether we live, die, breath and gasp.

Who we love, why we love, what

Right have they to say we do not know

Our own thoughts and our religion?

We are more than what they say. We are human.

Why does the regime seem to think

It has all the power? Humans are humans

And that will not change; no matter how you abuse

And beat us. You may try, but we will not reject

Nor forget our humanity, our personhood. Take what you

Will. We are the young, with bravery worthy of Godric.

You may decide we cannot live, but what have you over the power

Of divinity? We are embedded with valor from Valinor,

Men of Numenor, Hobbits of the Shire.

We have a task we will fulfill, and

A gallantry you cannot quench.

Gallantry © Elizabeth Wherry, April 2012