Bravado! Poem by Denis Martindale

Bravado!



When God made Man, this world to rule,
From Adam, God made Eve,
Yet did God make each one a fool,
The Devil to believe?
Consider all of history,
Its lessons learnt and lost,
Consider Man's humanity,
Each action has its cost...

With exploits here and exploits there,
Man seems hell-bent on death,
His wars have always caused despair,
Lives stolen from each breath...
With callous crimes and cruelties,
With turmoils far and wide,
It's very hard to salvage peace
When hatred burns inside...

Bravado's such a great deceit,
'I dare you! ' Satan says,
Could this be why Man must compete
And widows say their prayers?
Could this be why great strides are made,
Technology and such?
Yet all such joys are bound to fade,
If Death comes close to touch...

While pioneers transcend all fears,
Past records still to break,
Mortalities will span the years,
Yet not for righteous' sake...
Merely to brag, to swell with pride,
To say, 'I beat the rest! '
So many men have tried and died,
To leave us unimpressed...

To see a bird bids Man to fly,
A whale bids Man to dive,
'The moon above, that's not so high,
Let's see who can survive! '
And so, Man dares, bravado reigns,
Where wisdom fears to tread,
Refusing still to reach for gains,
When no-one gains if dead...

The skier on the mountain slope,
The diver 'neath the waves,
The spaceman gliding near Earth's globe
Who prays that God still saves...
Bravado fills our veins and more,
It fills our midnight dreams,
Yet in those dreams, blood's rare to pour,
It's life that brings extremes...

The young man on his motorbike,
The old man in his car,
They speed along the roads they like,
Perhaps one day too far...
The wrestler in the grudge match,
The boxer beaten down,
The burglar with a heist to hatch,
The king who keeps his crown...

No man is safe from 'I dare you! '
If he would be a man,
Yet what does God want us to do
To stay within His plan?
When wisdom lives within the mind,
It prays before each act,
For wisdom proves itself as kind,
When bodies stay intact...


Denis Martindale, copyright, October 2013.

READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success