"Order to Follow" Inspired by Along a Breton Shore:

Order to Follow

I was given an order.

They expect me to obey—

I expect me to obey.

I always obey because

they have always been in the right—

because they are right.

But if they aren’t right about this,

have they not been right about other things?

And if they’ve not been right,

and those against us are not right,

then is the right lost to us

who have been wading waistdeep in the wrong?

It is only us and them,

to follow the order or not,

to choose this as right

or to become a traitor to all I’ve been fighting for.

But I thought I was fighting for right,

I believed I was following orders to do right.

Who will stand with me

if I choose to stand apart

in the name of not choosing sides

but in choosing right?

I am expected to obey

because I was given an order.

But obedience is a choice;

one I’m not sure I should make.