I have been wily and evasive even on behalf of art

Talking to myself like this, in a blazon and an emblem, 

I realize I have never said plainly most of what I truly believe, 

I have shied away from difficulty and misstated my deepest fears, 

I have not born full witness to the suffering in the streets of the cities I love,

I have not walked a picket line against the tyranny of greed,

I have been wily and evasive even on behalf of art,

I have not praised the movies in tones equal to the rapture

I have known there,

I cannot remember King Lear,

I did not finish Ulysses or even start on Proust,

even now I seek diversion in the candy necklace of delight,

even now I refuse to commit,

even now I would walk among jaguars

wearing the skin of a jaguar

as if it were not necessary to declare my allegiance,

as if I did not have to choose.

Which will it be, sugar or blood?

 

[Campbell McGrath {1962- }, from 'Sugar or Blood' in Nouns & Verbs]