We All Choose Love Poem by Margaret Alice Second

I told my beloved of the books I read
and my perspective changed, all of a
sudden I could see beyond the fantasy
and imaginary beings into the values
highlighted by this enriching addition
to the bedrock of reality underneath

The wonderful principles of loyalty to
family and integrity - being honest to
all loved ones, the age-old dilemma
of balancing honesty with protection
and commitment, the issue of trust
lost or won, and I had to smile at

My inner Agony Aunt who looks down
on fairytales, while my inner Alice-in
Wonderland who looks at everything
in oblique lines, was joyously involved
in the Morality Play of ethical values
in the soul-searching questions of

What truths to convey and what to hide
in an attempt to make people safe, and
the highest sacrifices made, the laying
down of life in the protection of things
and people cherished by those we love
questioning what is most important

Whether there are things we can love
more than life itself, the people we love
and their well-being and ease - or our
own safety, and we all know what the
answer to that is: We all cherish the
things we take delight in more than

Plain physical existence, alone and
bereft, cynical and bitter, we conclude
making wrong choices changes life into
torture and the comedy turns into a full-
scale tragedy, therefore we all choose
what will make us happy in the role

We are playing in life, we all choose love…