Between verdict and flesh
a dark gulf opens as
we label awkward shadows
cast by dull light.

Good and Evil become
binary shades haunting
the crowded theatres of judgment
where we perform certainties and uncertainties.

Yet behind the shades, colour, humans,
a messy kaleidoscope of contradictions
bleeding through taped up edges,
and bloodied categories on noticeboards.

A woman feeds the homeless
and cheats on her taxes.

A man builds orphanages
and enjoys hidden cruelties.

This is the calculus of character
that resists our desperate equations.

Neither angels nor demons
but weather systems of possibility:
beautiful, destructive, wilful, uncertain.

The verdict
premature,
the evidence
incomplete.

 

19/4/2025