To Be a Man

The noise outside is silently growing
To fill the room with emptiness,
And the problems of the world
Ride through the air of time and mind
To rest on the shoulders of each and every man.

To take them seriously:
To make him thoughtful,
To make him concerned,
To make him forlorn,
To make him belong.

To take them lightly:
To make him thoughtless,
To make him discerned,
To make him cajoling,
To make him trivial.

To be a man; to be a part
He must lend a hand; must give his heart.
For he who is careless is nothing but wrong,
And he who is thoughtless can never belong.

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