It would be too easy then
to say: all is cast in iron
the will should withdraw
recede and the eyes no longer dare upon
the face of fate confront-

look not away
only allow your patience
faith and courage to hold you
in position. Stay, stay
never mind the oppression
and angst of the day
the heart is not made
for pampering
it's tougher than you knew
what if it should bleed?

Nothing
(if you will make
your stand and seek not
the easy route--the escape passage)
is ever cast in iron
for man is born
to be tested and tried
in the burning cauldron
(he's the raw material
to be forged, moulded
and shaped
to reach the finished product
that makes him larger
than a Promethean)--

the pain
the suffering
time and again
is the in-between
of time and the struggling
to be--what if the sun
shows no mercy
the rain
pelts the eye
what if the earth
shakes and the sea
in its rage breaks its bank
and inundates
the shore
and the night
blinds the weary traveller?

every flicker
of a hope then
shall be a beacon
and coalesce
into a tonne
of strength

nothing is cast in iron
for the tougher -than-
steel-man.