Double Vision

Benjamin Franklin is the person most credited
with the invention of bi-focal glasses,
the better to both see clearer at a distance
and read legal and social texts close up.

Was this his greatest gift to the presidents
who followed him? A way of losing the focus
in their political vision, from their prescription
needing renewal. This unclear view of society
was what enabled them to pursue legal arguments
with pin sharp logic with which to perpetuate
the inferior status of non-whites and immigrants.

The clearest vision was always for the few
and they were best expressed with economy,
the better to avoid the broader implications.

Those who read and wrote most
were The Few who owned everything,
particularly the deeds of the state
on which all ownership was based
which they read with the close part
of their bifocal lenses, whilst being blind
to the bigger world around them.