-- A Cruel Companion --

John Herlihy

Our conscience but a cruel companion,

This seer never to leave us totally alone.

A true witness in the gorge of a canyon,

Our shoulders bearing this heavy stone.

Pursuing heart-felt passions be rewarded,

Feelings of fulfillment without any blame.

Pursuing debauching lust to be defrauded,

Wayward desires hardly deserve a name.

Conscience knows value of what we do,

Even if a person may not in God believe.

This counterpart to the soul all evil knew,

Making it impossible ourselves to deceive.

Kill another person, the whisperer knows,

An inner voice will speak to us of remorse.

A nighttime echo within that will never doze,

Signaling that our ship of state be off course.

Faithful conscience all our good acts adore

Rejoicing in the weight of the divine scales

Distressed conscience our evil acts abhor

Weighing in the balance burdensome tales

The bad conscience thinks it worldly-wise,

All thought of being caged up fully removed.

Loving brotherhood a suitable compromise,

Deliberations of conscience never disproved.

A bad conscience will absolve one from guilt,

What others consider wicked, you do approve.

Yet a mote in the eye annoys as a piece of silt,

A troubled conscience has so much to prove.

Conscience is our compass following it course,

The needle may deviate, but follows its true way.

Ever watching, ever seeing, an otherworldly force,

We may wish it to leave, but it always will stay.

A faithful, cruel companion, telling us who we are,

With every decision, conscience is closely aligned.

Such honesty compelling, an inner door held ajar,

We cannot escape this inner eye, there in the mind.

Like having a little angel near me, always taking care,

Not at all a cruel companion, but a knowing friend.

Whispering to me of good and evil as in a prayer,

From now until my final day on earth at the end.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Wednesday 13 April 2022