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One friend challengers another to struggle on questions he would sooner avoid.

The Accuser

I come home in late dusk light to find you at my gate.
I've dreaded you all day long and chose to come home late.
I'd hoped you'd weary waiting for me so I could go to bed,
But you chose to bide your time and face me now instead.

I'm hoping you'll be gentle, but I fear that you will not,
That your anger and your passion will open wounds I've got.
And lay bare for all to see the impurity in my soul,
And make me question all that I am and my self-defined role.

You don't mince words. You broach the point. You lay it at my door.
And when at last I beg you stop you fire it at me more.
Finally when I think that you have nothing more to say
You challenge me to change myself and mean it as I pray.

I want to say that I am right and that no doubt you're not.
I want you to take back your words and renounce them on the spot.
But something in me hesitates because I can't pretend.
Somewhere deep inside of me I know you are my friend.

Though all the facts aren't crystal clear to my straining eyes,
Although the truth is blurred and marred by self-deception and lies,
I know from my experience the accuracy of your sight
And so for one brief moment I think you might be right.

Bright light overcomes me and my thoughts dash and race
As I look at my life in every time and place
Seeing for the first time where I'd called wrong right
Staked my reputation and put up a hard fight.

And that is when the evil rises and shows its horrid face
At the chance the two of us the truth might embrace,
For so long as I had my flaws I held a steady truce,
But now that I admit them the darkness is let loose.

For now 'tis no longer as it was in former years
When an evil enemy could whisper in my ears
And point out that special flaw I knew I must protect
And any friend who'd help me win was one I must reject.

By considering where I might be wrong and trying hard to see
The scope and extent of my infidelity
To Right and wisdom and what I know is true
I enter into battle with evil's chosen few.

So now my accuser and I stand side-by-side,
Fighting together the evil we can't abide,
Undercutting the power of darkness on earth
And finally discovering our own true worth.