The Green Challenge

A forceful expression there Of impatience with inherited forms And of a growing view on the right That caution, in sufficiently large quantities May come to resemble paralysis Such tensions are not, in themselves, unprecedented though their present theatrical intensity May suggest a wider loosening Of the older alignments On the other side of the governing argument The complaint is not that too much has been risked But that too much has been softened You call it balance We call it thinning You call it care We hear the edges being taken off the truth You took the language of the wound And filed it into policy You kept the nouns of human need Then trimmed the verbs for decency You learned to sound like patient light In rooms designed to dim the question And every time you named the good You fed it through a softer section You call that grown-up You call that wise We call it moral shrinkage in a sober tie You call that measured You call that fair We call it learning how to watch and not quite care You made virtue administrative You made conscience sound procedural You took the fire out of the sentence Left the wording clean and neutral You call it serious You call it state We call it hope arriving eight revisions late And every time you said "be calm" You taught the damage how to wait You did not strike the banner down You simply lowered it by inches You did not say the poor can drown You built more thresholds, checks, and pinches You kept the grammar of concern While teaching mercy to sound managed Till even kindness, in your hands Came out as something filed and bandaged You call that patience You call that trust We call it watching bright conviction gather dust You call that burden You call that scale We call it one more noble tone used to make courage pale You made virtue administrative You made conscience sound procedural You kept the face and lost the muscle Turned the urgent into suitable You call it serious You call it right We call it locking every window through the night And every time you said "not yet" You taught the darkness to sit tight A queue can be a quiet threat A threshold dressed in careful grammar A door can close in lowered tones And still come down with all the hammer You say the line restores our trust We hear exclusion learning manners You say the frame protects the whole We hear fear printed onto banners You are so calm You are so clean You are so practised at the in-between A country breaks You bring a chart And call the lesser fracture art You did not lose the words for good You only trained them not to start You made virtue administrative You made conscience sound procedural You wrapped the wound in proper language Till the pain looked almost mutual You call it serious You call it care We call it one more careful hand rehearsing how to spare The world its truth The heart its heat The cost of choosing to be neat You kept the tone You kept the thread You kept the sentence safely fed And all the while the living thing Went thinner where it bled