The Delicate Balance

There are those who smash rising truth

without thinking twice . . .
who, in the name of love and duty,

flatten wonder,

awe,

and dawning realizations

with the tacit supremacy of
the intractable,

the material,

the practical . . . 

and something is lost,

perhaps forever,

when tender infant thoughts

must fly away abruptly

to make room

for another's brusque concrete and immediate.

Is this truly the flowering of mutual charity,

or is this a tragic

misunderstanding of duty's sweeter way
whose flawed spirit --

tainting its best works with the blunt force of a hammer --

will most quickly crush the soul?