What It Is Like To Be A Bat

My eye to others might seem stern
My visage might seem grim
Furrows be upon my brow
My speech a somber hymn

My words might speak of doom and woe
My edicts seem malign
But all such things, necessities
For I can read the signs

It’s not the shame of other men
(Or most) who fail to see
What nature cruelly gifted us
(I mean, my friends and me)

For ‘tween the overt subterfuge
And mere complexity
The blinded and the blind still walk
And hearken not to me

So protest, if you will, the force
With which I steer your head
I brandish it with kindest heart
(a heart that’s often bled)

And think not that my grim façade
Conceals an unkind core
I hurt myself much more than you
When I must hurt you more

I take the wise man’s burden
Never my cross eschew
This task that’s laid upon me as
A better man than you