A Free Man Climbs Fences

To understand genesis
Is to create
To understand freedom
Is to liberate
To understand opinion
Is to debate
To understand knowledge
Is to contemplate

It starts with an idea
A seed if you will
Challenged by experience
The soil readied by till
A root runs wild
While the trunk runs free
Until pruned by a man
Who wants a bush instead of a tree

He stands on neither side
Instead roaming where necessary
For truth plays no favorites
Seeking no particular sanctuary
You hear his voice
And smile as you listen
Yet he is not there
For it was only an opinion
You turn to see his face
But he remains behind
You turn again to see
And realize you cannot see his mind

He wrote on a piece of paper
Knowing this was the time
To form a more perfect union
Truth must draw the lines
There is no leader without authority
And no law without consent
The seeds that were planted
Come from roots and not government

But what grew was not freedom
But instead a monument to tyranny
And though it promised shelter
The shadow blocked what he could see
And yet he knew the hearts of men
The weak were enslaved by the strong
Commerce drove a stake into the ground
A monument grew to right a wrong
So he tore down the fence between men
Though they quickly built another one
He refused to acknowledge their arguments
Because he knew neither side had won

Silence is the price to pay for civility between men
Yet when they speak you will know of their place
The unknowable mind is for those who climb fences
He will be behind you no matter which way you face
For as you hear his voice he will move at will
The truth flies free and lands where it will live
And as the roots of man’s world have dug deep
He still asks why he blames and cannot forgive