Leader of the opposition.

He tried to hide inside himself
to avoid the noise he’d known,
but the violent island of his life
was too rueful to console.

Convincing him of winter things
he’d never covered over,
his foes left him believing
that his salient lines would suffer.

But friends battled for their bishop,
even when he wasn’t with them,
and furnished him with worship
in the worst moments of mayhem.