As If The Trees Could Not Help; Or Dystopia In Its Meager Hour; Or The Brightest Light Bulbs In The Room... Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

as if the trees could not help but burst into flowers

nor the stars swirl into galaxies without them

or streams run. under the summer sun

they have decreed all things to grow

in depressing mandates issued by the score

and as they see it, are charged

with telling us so. even how to breathe.

this is the nightmare role

they have conceived

who take notes on the less fortunate

they suppose are unenlightened or just plain lazy.

the lightest reading of the old forgotten tales

would enlighten them

that men perceived to be in ill fortune

are often the most blessed.

but you can't tell them anything

they don't think

they already know unless they can think

that you know less. o so much less

though you are schooled in great distress

they imagine they were the first

to come to all knowledge.

and have degrees from every college,

earned or not.

lead the horses to water as you will

they will not drink

no matter what their thirst

unless you think they thought of it first.

mary angela douglas 27 july 2019