On the Choice to Run For Office

To boldly tread a path well worn
by those who have not cared,
while knowing that your choice requires
more than you've ever dared
means that the stand you choose to make,
the words you choose to say,
must offer more than platitudes
you'll use then throw away.

You'll have the forum many crave
to make your views well known.
The task of planting fallow fields
and tending what you've sown.
For those, there are, who sow to reap.
And those who plant to grow
a harvest that can feed all who
depend upon it so.

So choose your issues carefully,
be sure of where you stand,
then you can face the doubting crowd,
both calm and in command
to ask that they believe in you
and place in you their trust.
And know that they'll expect you to
return that faith. You must!

And they will learn who stands with them
and who just came to play
as each day you fulfill the oath
that you now hope to say.
Whate'er the end result may be,
elections lost or won,
you've raised the standards we'll expect
because you chose to run.