Because the eye has a short shadow or it is hard to see over heads in the crowd?

If everyone else seems smarter but you need your own secret?

If mystery was never your friend?

If one way could satisfy the infinite heart of the heavens?

If you liked the king on his golden throne more than the villagers carrying baskets of lemons?

If you wanted to be sure his guards would admit you to the party?

    The boy with the broken pencil
    scrapes his little knife against the lead
    turning and turning it as a point
    emerges from the wood again

    If he would believe his life is like that
    he would not follow his father into war

(Naomi Shihab Nye, Fundamentalism, via Poetry Foundation)