They say blood is thicker than water,
though, truly,
what is blood but water colored and clouded by sentiment?

In the face of it all,
is it not what sentiment that binds us what defines us,
rather than abstract honor expected without reason?

Blood may call for proximity,
but, then, it may not.

Is it not only through close constraint,
bound by shared experience, then love,
that we choose who to trust and live by with carefully earned wisdom?

I shall not bid love and acceptance to those who will,
in return,
bid me none but that which serves them.

I choose my heart,
the color of that which it pumps,
not those who presume to know that which they have never seen.