Unknowing All
by Macey Muse
They say he was a man like you or I -
They write of him as Brutus, draped in red
And paint the contradictions on a sky
That calmly shines above our unbowed heads.
They speak of weapons deadly in those hands
Left dripping, traitorous as Lord Macbeth
With blood of those so hasty a command
Placed plotting to effect his early death.
They argue circles round-about this man -
A colonist, left stranded far from earth
To tame and claim this wealth of alien land -
Such irony, upon his land of birth.
So think, as Sheppard frightens and appals
That as he fought, you slept, unknowing all.
—unknown author; submitted to The New York Times letters section one week after declassification.
The End