Ezar's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd

The meekness you so drunkenly abhor,

Vorkosigan, I've striven with my blood

to fix in every puking, murderous Vor -

with mixed results, I grant. There is no god

to terrify them into living well ;

that falls to me, as it will fall to you,

and my own son, as cruel as he is ill,

is living proof of why blood yet must flow.

I let you spew your nonsense in your cups

because I need you, and before the end

I'll have your last submission to my need.

You'll prate of honour then, and know its lapse

as painfully as any man who'll lend

another's son the right to kill his seed.