Flawed Hero Fiction

Flawed people, people agree,
Are ordinary people
And also famous people,

Historic people, people
Who created great things, who
Did big deeds. All flawed people,

Being flawed being standard,
Inevitable. People
Are all always flawed people.

Fine. Then come the arguments,
Arguments that make it clear,
People organize people

Into reasonably good
Or worthwhile people who are,
Of course, flawed, as all are,

And unreasonably bad
People, more or less worthless
People not to be called flawed.

Flawed is a defensive word,
Evoking wabi-sabi,
A shrug at imperfection.

People of value are flawed.
Evil is not flawed. Evil
Is all flaw, a perfection.

So, to the one side you have
Yourself and all flawed people,
To the other, the wicked,

The worthless, the other side.
Flawed creates a boundary,
A way to rename the taint

Of bad behavior as not
Seeping steadily, smoothly
From the most wicked to all

By infinitely subtle
And continuous degrees.
No! Over there, the wicked,

The bad on the other side,
And over here, all the rest,
Flawed, as good folks must be flawed.