Advice to a blinded mind
An education of all humanity
From mere books and texts alone
Is a suit of borrowed clothes:
It never fits, nor does it suit,
And sure as the sun shall rise, my dear,
It will give you away, over time.
Humanity is no university course,
One sandwiched between Art and Lit.,
It is people, different people.
Their hopes, their dreams, their tears,
And both the love and the hate
They generate, hot as the sun.
You see people as two-dimensions,
Stop and go, black and white,
Good for you, and not worth your time.
Dear one, that cage of mind helped
Put you inside your cage of steel,
Blinded you to the truth of the world.
There are those with knives to cut
You down, whenever there is the chance.
There are those with hands outstretched
And little else to offer, except pain.
But there are those, rare jewels in
The darkest night, lantern-bearers
on the path.
They have places in my head, seats in my heart,
And my love for them as themselves,
Not as I want them to be.