1.
Do you believe in life?
A gentle breath of air;
The soft beating in your chest.
A joyous occasion that lasts for decades,
A ceremony that lasts for millennia,
To celebrate all that the ground offers to us.

The cold of winter and the hands that work in it;
They must one day become limp and rigid,
A loss, but a blessing all the same,
A peaceful rest, well earned for their suffering.
An occasion that lasts for but a moment,
But affects us forever;
Do you believe in death?

2.
Do you believe in good?
Hands that nurture the small,
And fingers that protect the nurturer;
A beautiful symbiosis that remains unchanged
As long as one knows that invisible hand called ‘love’;
The soothing dance between partners,
And complete strangers.

But embers float within a smoke-filled mind;
Embers of sloth and greed and lust;
Tempting things that thieve virtue and joy,
A slender finger pulling us to the blackness,
Where there is no light to see;
We come undone;
Do you believe in evil?

3.
On your left a saint,
On your right a thief,
Can you tell them apart?
Scars etch their arms and flaws dapple their faces
All the same.
Calloused fingertips and tear-stained eyes
They both bear.
Can you judge them when you cannot even tell the difference?
Do you believe in humanity?