The silence of our friends...

He fell from the cliff to the sea,

onto the rocks below, in a silent fall from grace.

Those who watched from the far side of the ocean

proclaimed their sadness that he had fallen,

having walked interminably towards the edge

though they had railed from below,

that he should find another death

of their mercurial choosing.

How sad, they thought, wrapped in their cloaks,

that he had not listened to their enlightened grace.

They had seen him alone at the cliff’s edge,

and now he was gone…

Like the reed pulled from the water,

there would be ripples,

but then they too would pass.

And he would be forgotten.

They had seen this before

and had lamented then as they do now,

that this one had not availed himself of their greatness.

At the top of the cliff,

the coldness of the wind cut through

and revealed the evil beneath

as the unseen few smiled to one another

for the one they feared the most

had fallen to his end at their hand.

Though he fought a most noble fight

and for a time they had been afraid,

unable to move him or destroy him,

until the ones of the sea

pulled him down to the rocks with their hubris,

so they could lament his fate

for having failed to heed their rubric.

Evil unwittingly amalgamated with evil

had won the day.

In the shadows of the rocks

having walked the path from the edge,

avoiding the danger all around them

his many friends gathered near him in silence.

While sad, they remained silent,

as the few, unseen above, watched them,

as the emperors watched from the sea,

they looked upon one another

and at once agreed in the stillness,

that no one else would fall

if silence remained.

God watched with great sadness,

For the King had foreseen,

“We will be remembered,

not by the words of our enemies,

but by the silence of our friends.”