Ink Tea Stone Leaf

You think that you are virtuous
because of where you were born,
or when you were born?
You even think that you are virtuous
because of how you were born,
but every one is born in much the same way,
and if they make it that far
then they all get older until they die,
you know about that, it's the passage of time.
So why do you act like this,
like a membership you never applied for
in a club without qualifications
entitles you to greater consideration,
the vanguard of a moral revolution
or a sentinel of civilization,
when all you've ever been is young or old?
I've been one, and by degrees I'll be the other,
but I only hope I can remember
how it feels to be regarded as lesser than 
because of when or how or where I was born
when my turn comes to judge a generation
or a child, or a nation,
and remember that compassion
is a virtue that transcends the time and space
and manner of the human.