The farmer and the miller

The shell of the seed is hard, so hard!
and there is nothing for it
but to be thrust into damp and dark
and given patience, water, fertilizer and time.

I think we are all beautiful souls,
potential within the shell of self and limitation.
Some will germinate;
some fall on stony soil and need relocation.

Yet how the farmer regards the seed
is different from the miller.
One sees the merit of today’s reality;
the other ten or a hundred years further on.