All Hell or Heat Lightning?

Watch people who inhabit
A number of public roles
That require them to hold forth

On topics of varying
Moral heft and consequence,
And it may occur to you,

It’s not the lie, exactly,
That matters most to the truth,
Not even lie frequency—

It’s the level of lying.
Are you honest when it counts?
Can your public count on you

To be truthful for those things
That matter to them the most?
This is not about the trick

Of fooling your followers.
You may do that. They may want
You to deceive them, so long

As they don’t have to know it.
This is about when stakes change.
We’re out here in the tall grass,

Watching power from a distance,
Like children watching a storm
Flickering and whispering

To each other, conferring,
Whether we should find shelter,
Whether we could make it home.