This and That

“Balance & Opposition”
Painting by Ibrahim Savas Pekdemir
From dart.fine-art.com

serenity suffers
standing on scales
of off-centeredness
leans to the drag
of a lopsided life
out of plumb
lost of level
deprived equanimity
too much of this
leaves too little of that
without balance
no temper can
modulate tones of
emotional swings
without tug from
dependable keels
every journey
tempts hazard to list
without equipoise
character never stands
upright and virtue
cannot offset vice
cannot neutralize
random embrace
of an ethical drift
overloaded by heft
of an unstable culture
caught up in the speed
of the sweep of some
popular thrill or another
its flywheel stopped
dead in the heart