Why Being Productive Is Better Than Being Right Poem by Haki Aitoro

Meticulous reasoning
Unequivocal evidence
Flawless logic
Wrapped in eloquence
Delivered so passionately
With absolute conviction
In the name of truth
We are so deluded
In our obsession to prove
We are right

Painstaking detail
Sound arguments
Self evident proofs
Presented concisely
With saintly fervour
We fail to convince others
In the name of reality
We are so foolish
In our fixation to prove
We are correct

Love eroding
In a spiral of abuse
Nights of endless torture
Lover bombarding lover
In a blitz of blame
Relentless accusations of ignorance
Incessant allegations of falsehood
From one to the other
Throwing projectiles of damnation
Fuelled by exasperated emotions
Along a trajectory of argumentation
Trapped inside a tense body
Anger ablaze like an aggravated pyromaniac
Common sense now a rare jewel
All trust severed
All respect disengaged
They are the children of perdition
Lost
In their quest to prove each other’s belief
‘I am so right’

Friendship on the verge of antagonism
Ill feeling terrorising fraternal hearts
A skirmish of words commence
Kindled by a furnace of ill tempers
As friend accuses companion of
Obstinacy
As chum charges buddy with
Unawareness
‘You are not listening’
The cries of the accuser
‘You don’t understand’
The laments of the accused
An inferno of rage ignites
Tempers flare
Verbal battle incurs
The vocal assault
As sharp as a samurai blade
Each slicing the other apart
With razor-sharp tongues
In order to prove
His distorted sense of perception

Bodies move closer and closer
As if to embrace
This is not love
No, this is war
Fists of Fury swing
In a mirage of madness
As a deluge of blows rain down
Pounding their faces
Like a violent shower of hail stone
Former friends
Now new enemies
Fight to impose their supremacy
To establish their absurd truths as absolute
Submission the unconscious rule
Of this tentative companionship
In the desire to establish
‘I am right’

Work environment tense
Nothing less than
A slave plantation
Managers the brutal overseers
The laborious workers
Brutalised slaves
Under the regime of new management
A synonym of dictatorial rule
Disrespect the accepted norm
Exploitation the guiding force
In the call centre of trauma
Employees treated as dim-witted infants
The opinions of geniuses amongst them
Ignored
Their differences not appreciated
By managers with fractured intellects
With social skills non apparent
With egos out of control
As they impose their sadamesque edicts
To impress their superiors
In a foolish display of their idiocy
Upon an oppressed workforce
Where staff turnover is high
Quantity not quality
Is the order of the day
Where favouritism not ability
Wins you rewards
Where staff moral has deceased
In an environment befitting zombies
Wages the only incentive
Ignorant managers irrationally enforce
An unproductive work ethic
In the name of
‘This is right’

Our bloody history
A revelation to all
Of our present level of barbarity
Savage city dwellers
Urban primates
Adorned in the cloth of morality
We are ethically challenged
Spiritually redundant
Emotionally retarded
Expounding on theories of righteousness
Promoting equality
Debating about justice
While we
Curse misguided neighbours
Segregate based on colours
Fight fictitious enemies
Kill ideological opponents
Terrorise free spirits
Destroy loving families
Imprison religious devotees
In order to quench our thirst
To prove
‘We are so right’

Profound wisdom
The domain of the wise
Resides in an accommodating heart
An open mind
Inaccessible to the conceited
No place for zealots, extremists
Fascists or racists
Her desire
Her selfless yearning
To share her perspective
To exchange her experience
To learn new ideas
To find alternatives
Not to impose personal truths
Alien ideologies
On an uninterested mind
On a closed heart
On a troubled soul

Her path is the middle way
Where all win
None lose
Lovers share and non abuse
Where friends come to an understanding
Or beg to differ
Where communities exchange
And respect diversity
Where teams make decisions together
Where every view point is valid
For the middle way
Is not about truth vs. falsehood
Nor about right or wrong
It is about being productive
Finding productive solutions
Not proving unproductive views
So how productive are you?