Poetics Aside prompt: Write a poem illuminating how it feels to stand up for what is right in the face of adversity in the workplace.
Honor or money
Which will it be?
For I can fool others
But I can never fool me
The plaque on the wall
Will mock me with truth
If I succeed through a lie
What truth could not do
I want to look myself
Straight in the eye
Not blush because
All I see is a lie
Money can never
Buy out regret
Or clear the conscience
Of its debt
Bills will keep coming
Words slip with ease
But guilt is an albatross
Money cannot appease
To suffer the truth
Or spill pretense?
To keep my job
At honor's expense?
What can we say
To our children and youth
If we choose to lie
Then try to teach truth?
The cost of a lie
Is hidden from view
To keep a lie covered
Requires at least two
God forbid
I should lie so much
That I no longer feel
Reproach's touch
A lie is a shackle
Of misery
But the truth will always
Set you free
Money or sacrifice?
Fortune or trust?
Riches in heaven?
Or treasures of dust?
Guilt or peace?
Honor or shame
What will they remember
When someone speaks my name?
Today we live
Tomorrow we die
Nothing is worth
The price of a lie
Janet Martin