Ignorance

"The multitude of books is making us ignorant." - Voltaire


I have come to America to watch her boil in the sun
with flies and larvae dug into the flesh. Is it possible
that if I were ignorant, and came upon a midnight clear
set down in New Orleans day two of the Hurricane,
would I not recognize despair? Could I walk away,
hide, kill; would I be like the Quaker named
Fox who died a martyr for beliefs unbroken by pain.

Ignorance is "bursting out all over the meadow and the spring."
Watch your step. You are lost in a bloody haze. Read books
at your peril dude, mensch, fraulein and be sure to skip
all the parts that show complexity to be an impossible
puzzle. Let the authorities do it. Let them make your choices
Do not ask questions or you will be turned into salt.

My Pentecostal Aunt told me once when she spoke about
the piety of old fashioned religion: “Your problem
nephew, is you know too much.”

“It is by faith that we know,” she said “not by deeds;
remember God thinks for us. He knows all questions
without tense and answers them without limit."

"Don’t gaze too long at the sky. It will blind you. Don’t
sail off the edge of the earth, you will be devoured
by demons as you burn for your hubris and vanity."

Do not pleasure yourself or hair will grow from your mother’s chin.
Watch how easy it is to map love without falling asleep on the bed,
your sex in your fingers, and your woman or man alive invisible
like a Brandenburg concerto or Gillespie's "Africana."

We are all accountable for each other, so it is good if we spy, sneak
assured everyone is pure of heart. Remember, death’s celebration.
God knows every soul; He counts every grain of sand.
easy does it; our universe is much larger than the field
of one man, woman, couple, threesome, orgy.