XXXIX: Fair

It’s pain that leads to sin, a wise man said.

What fairness is a God who makes things so.

That that by which we get our daily bread

is that which tempts us even as we go.

And after everything that’s done and said,

it’s true that pain, regardless, is a thorn.

How fair of God, to let us have this dread,

decisionless, at least after we’re born.

But there is one who saw this pain and said

I’ll not have this with no-one by their side.

If pain must be, then let me be its head,

and when it asks for more, let me decide.

If e’er there was a way to make it fair,

it’s this one has the pow’r to get it there.