Choice
("Having chosen, you are free no longer." -- W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up.)
Choose, then choose: be free no longer,
Contract your spirit in an iron ring:
discover then which liberty is stronger,
hard-held stance, or wandering.
Stars are more sharp seen by strait condition
than through the loose vistas of the sky;
one bitter window works a definition
keener than freedom's countries on the eye;
bondage can be a telescope for knowing:
widest truth plunges a narrow well;
through seven thin whorled horns blowing
such power streamed that great gates fell.
Choose, then, choose: let a dark winding
entomb the soul until, as once before,
gathered to power by the heavy binding,
glory leaps, and leaves an empty door.
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