Popular Ignorance

When ignorance becomes sufficient
to not just mistrust every idea ever known
and every human being that embodies them,
then what hope is there of knowing anything else?

That is when we would be at our most graceful
imitating the natural courtesy of the animals
that we previously affected to despise,
and when such innocence would befit others
and we would least understand or be aware of it.  

An Unhealthy Synesthesia?

Nowadays I have to be careful
whenever I listen to the news.

I am okay hearing about the homeless
even when they are not being housed
but instead offered sandwiches and chat
by people driven to act in good faith
who can't do as much as they ought to.

But I have to turn the radio off
when the news gives out reports
on the latest intractable war
where the opposing sides
have held their ground so long
that neither side can withdraw,
least of all at the negotiation table
where they are supposedly seeking agreement.

When I hear the latest numbers of deaths
I can almost smell the chemicals, the cordite,
and the lead fumes of the military vehicles
which keep us in small circles of collective unhappiness.