To be great means you will be hated.
By some, perhaps
or by all in your lifetime
or possibly for all time
but the great take that risk
often without knowing it.
And that risk
– however small,
can never be appreciated
by all.

There is little choice for the great
to be great.
“They cannae help it,”
as my late, lamented
and super-fictional uncle Liam O’Shaughnessy never said, “‘Tis who they are.”
Truer words were never spoken
certainly not by a man
who never spoke.

To be great means you will be hated
which is probably why
you’re notorious
as the most popular guy in town.