Sonnets for Ale (xlvi.)

To speak the truth to those who gain from lies,
who use the power of the state or purse
to crush the ones whose goodness they despise,
earns harsh punishment and sometimes worse,
and yet it is a noble choice to make
which only men of courage entertain.
Yet even fewer men do not forsake
the inconvenient truth that visits pain
on one’s own followers and chosen mates
who wield power of a different sort,
the calumny of old friends that awaits
an unwelcome but needed full report.
The true test of the leader needed most
is lack of flattery or empty boast.