Against Excess

(of knowledge or wisdom)

by T.P. Wilkinson / October 25th, 2015

Learning
not to listen
learning
not to see
commences early
like learning
not to be.
Starting
on a parent’s lap
forgotten love
preferred the slap
passing then
grave teachers
binding
they sap
youth’s fantasy
unwinding
Till finally
an occupation
finding
rewards
for working hard
in fright
Bleeding
feeding leaches
Till blindness
overshadows
sight.
Naive ambition
or malnutrition
avarice teaches
deafness surely
willful reaches
glorious ignorance
speechless reigning
breeding malice
kindness feigning
blessed in empire’s
gory chalice
Social media revelation
misery for delectation
displaces guilt
erases time
shows every death
in moderation
vicarious depredation
paves the path
to white salvation.

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..

This article was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2015 at 8:04am and is filed under Poetry.