The Great Few

They are vanishingly few 
in number yet their will-o-the-wisp
presence illuminates the world
as does the sun bursting
behind dark clouds
those dark clouds a metaphor
for humanity's dense and dark
unwillingness to open
itself to the light of reason
choosing instead the ever
renascent sinister dim corridors
of ignorance. Those shining stars
with their clarity of vision
each brought humanity closer
to an end-goal of thought
and action unobscured by a web
of suspicion and hostility 
hoisting the occupants of the
world toward the pinnacles
of science, philosophy and art
selflessly using their genius to
benefit all before their bright light
of being expired. While they are
venerated for their exceptionalism
exalted above the common man
the burden of civilization
time and again exhausts the great
uncommitted in a conflicted
balance of self and the other
building once again the pyre of
hateful bile singeing no one's
conscience in a world aflame.