Reason, a worthy deity

take care o ye judge of man
when thou wouldst strike to hit the point home
with crafted false comparisons
that mock reason, that unbending deity

for a terrible end awaits
when man ventures to bend to will
what shape refus'd to bend
and, springing back, causes the aspiring destroyer to perish, instead

is not man, to man, much greater than a dinner fowl?
is not an unborn child, life?
one's endeavor to hold these together in the negative
requires just such destruction
thou would fain remove reason from man
and doing so, deprive him of the key to faculty

claim ye that this is reason anew
and declare morality obsolete
subject to new relativity
and usher in your age of new man

find me then not eager
to be counted as man, with you
rather, name me animal
let me choose to scrape and scrap in body aching
than wander in that dark headspace
groping for those scraps left by your whimsy

worry i do not, but wait
endure what come and more
ever praying to my god
for man can live in no other circumstance

reason is my light and darkness
and hammer yet, and anvil
with which I shape my life's mettle
and hone my righteous mind