The wisdom of elders
Lay barren in their youth
As all men wander
As to dreaming elsewhere

Where pride masquerades as character
And fear puts on a confident face
With strength of arm defining worth
Praising documented conformity

Then appear he who revels instead
Against all that man before set course
Knowing not he still conformed
To yet another human master of flesh

Look ghastly to my own youth
Testify of that horrifying self will
With drunken spirit choosing all
Raptured within the grande delusion

One fights for the betterment
Of that he has been told is good
Contrast against his brothers lot
While the other fights for the betterment
Of all that he has been told is good
Contrast against his bitter resentment

Oh that my ways had not made wound
Of all who did appear
Or that my heart would have cared
A little more
For they of beauty and hope
As they instead met my rapacious appetite

Such great loss
Time and time again
Denying fault with a hardening heart
That time shall grant my way
This foul goal it shall succeed
Regardless of my insecure insanity!

What folly of youth
What absence of thought
What grandeur of a spectre
Offering nothing to anyone

But wisdom, she teaches
Though we cannot hear her call
And honor he does stand to
Though we regard him not
And integrity it does not bend
Regardless of my ignorant will
And truth it never changes
No matter what reality I desire
And pain and sorrow they do instruct
As we try with all speed to flee

Indeed I set my heart on foolishness

These matters though are not of man
Antiquity that law was laid
Not one human might can alter them
Nor shelter from their truth be found

Hear now this call
For it is a gift from God
To they who stand on either side

What a beautiful reality it is so
That he find understanding
From worthlessness
That no man can find from worth

What a gracious blessing it is so
That he find forgiveness
From destruction
That no man can find from building

What a humble awakening it is so
That he find the cornerstone of love
By departing wholly from it
That no man can find by seeking

What a power and salvation it is
That he find God
By cursing His ways
That no man can find in idol worship

Yes the wisdom of elders
Is no great measure of the man
For it is given only to the humbled
Found only within the broken
Truly desired only by the lost
Seen only by the blind
Heard only by the deaf
Loved only by the hated
Brought in only by the cast out
Cherished only by the wounded
Acquired only by the heavy price
That all who knew him paid.

So listen then while in your youth
Choose wisely as you grow
For the path of both
Who argue at the right of things
In the end
Is the Same

Ryan o0o