Dialogue Along Stone-Dark Corridors

Dialogue Along Stone-Dark Corridors
by John Paul Sherman

"Guard-watch says he died rather well."

                   "His living, it was much the same."

"Still, to the block, in that high call
He bowed his life..."

                    "But not his name."

"The usual charge?"

                    "Yes. Crown-treason:
                    Failure to kneel to sovereign whim.
                    He differed."

"And for what reason?"

                     "Only honor;
                     Enough for him."

"Kept his honor, but lost his head?
--Fool!"

                      "Perhaps. Though some would doubt it."

"What use is honor to the dead?"

                       "None. But what is life without it?"

"He could have fled: the ships, the coast..."

                        "--Was his world's edge.
                        Instead, he chose
                        This brief tower before the trough.
                        Truth, the mantle he would not doff;
                        Of pulse and pride, he loved pride most."

"And left he sons?"

                         "Far more than any knows..."

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