THE QUIET LIFE

Everything you ever do, you must always see it through
Every detail, every one, no component left undone.

Church and University, State and High Authority
All concurred that this must be, woe betide who disagree.

Beggar those who, casting doubt, asked how all this came about.
Militancy, hard and fast, cruel doctrines from the past.

Days of yore with cane and clout, painfully removing doubt,
Every question must be shrived, lest some open minds survived.
 
Truth be told I thought like that, fact on unrelenting fact
Rigid was the way to be, brute inflexibility.

Till the day I fell apart, shattered soul and broken heart
Anchorless beyond belief, lost and lonely in my grief.

Tell me now that rules are rules, I’ll say that’s the way of fools.
Tell me things are right or wrong, I’ll dance to a different song.

Tell me things are black and white, I’ll say that is seldom right
Tell me there’s just one solution, I’ll say that’s a false conclusion.

Life is harder now, I own.  Much mistaken, error prone.
Private thoughts remain unspoken, self-esteem entirely broken.

Putting that another way, I have less and less to say.
Turned my back on strain and strife, settling for the quiet life.



by Allan Bantick May 2023