Poem: "A Fork in the Road"
This poem came out of the May 1, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Stephen Laird, referring to the comic book and movie V for Vendetta. (I really should have remembered this character when asked for anti-villain examples, along with Magneto.) It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.
A Fork in the Road
V for victory,
V for vendetta ...
two fingers raised,
two sides of the same hand:
one to say peace
one to say fuck you
because these possibilities are always present
hidden within the whole of humanity,
every society, every individual
like a safety catch waiting to be triggered:
plague comes and cuts the bonds of kinship,
releasing some to escape and survive
oppression comes and cuts the bonds of propriety,
leaving some free to destroy an ossified culture
this is why the hero and the villain always face each other,
why good and evil are ever in balance, neither conquered forever:
because at the farthest extremes they step into and through each other
and unite, angel of destruction, demon of salvation
this is why there are two sides to every hand,
why there are two fingers raised in the face of fate,
why the letter has two legs written in red:
for its true nature lies in its shape, a fork in the road
V for vendetta,
V for victory.