Through suffering and shame we exculpate

the holder brokenbacked with shouldered sin,

but mortifier words cannot equate

the guilt required with the guilt within.

For one adjusticated to the right,

the rite of right and wrong comes naturally,

but sadist shadows loom behind the light,

for one without the other cannot be—

they both concede to feed the need

to judge the doer by the darkest deed,

to judge the flower by the struggling seed.

-Alistair "Hale" Sauterne