The Way of Confrontation
By John Herlihy

I
The way of confrontation wears masks in disguise,
Causing people to wonder what they see before their eyes.
The night overtakes the day leaving many feeling dismay;
Until the day wins over the night with the freshness of May.
Winter invades autumn’s serenity with the bitter urge to smite;
Undressing Nature’s splendor to cover her in a garment of white.

II
I was no stranger to confrontation when I was but a small child,
When I had to make a choice to abandon a friend suddenly gone wild.
In early adolescence, I was confronted with a desperate decision,
That I faced with young courage and executed with simple precision.
Later, life itself presented me a dilemma in the form of a critical choice,
Whose decision lay out my path of destiny and gave me my own voice.

III
The classic confrontation in life lies between good and evil,
An eternal struggle everyone must face in life’s endless upheaval.
Some avoid the idea of God, but they cannot avoid the devil;
A symbolic image whose presence lies inside and out at every level.
Individuals gather together the actions of their destiny in a dusty sack,
To be presented on the Day of Judgment when there is no turning back.

IV
The final confrontation lies between a man and his own soul,
A diamond encrusted in mud in need of polishing to appear whole.
Many are not aware that a confrontation lies in waiting;
They are happy with their lives without the need for further baiting.
They think they can live on their own without the need for accounting,
For what they desire and end up doing, they reflect only raw wanting.

The way of confrontation makes itself known through the human outcry;
The silence of the world makes itself known as its only reply.