Poem from a reader

The other day we received the following “poem for Solzhenitsyn,” from reader Gerard Garrigan.

"From good to evil is one quaver."
Russian proverb

In one short step,
In the time it takes
For one short breath,
In just one quaking quaver,
A man can move from good to evil
True for the ancients,
And for the medievals,
Still true for us today
In our smug, smug blindness,
This shortest of all life’s journeys –
That trip from good to evil