The Difference Between A Hero and A Villain

CWK

The villain sees injustice –
the mighty crushing the powerless –
but believing himself only acted on,
like a still tree, by the wind blown,
he decides what is is what is.
And so he mildly reacts,
and lies helpless as a fact,
apologizing for his weakness.

The hero sees the same,
and bears unto himself the blame.
And deeming himself an actor –
not so much a fact, as factor –
he acts, like a wind, constant moving, never slack,
and turns justice into fact.

Injustice is what the villain views;
it is because it is – just because –
injustice is his justice: history, his law.
Justice is what the hero pursues
because – because – it is his cause.
The villain speaks of justice,
but his deeds are cold and rusty –
for just he never was.
The hero acts, and ever justly;
justice is what the dust man does.

Herein is the difference

between the hero and the villain:

one man is the tree;

the other man, the wind.

Both decide – but the hero has will.

The hero moves, the villain's still.

The villain is chained; the hero, free.

The villain is what he sees;

the hero is what he may be.

The villain becomes what he was;

the hero is what the hero does.

Herein is the difference

between the hero and the villain:

both take blows, but the hero gives.

Both live, and die, in strife;

but the villain lives – 

while the hero leads – a life.