I learned from
and wonder at them
languid and peaceful
did I ever know that world?
in mine, another child is shot
every week, another kidnapped
young men shoot each other
and cops
charged with protecting us
use us for targets
could my mentor poets
know a world like mine?
or would they have to deny it
I know my fellow citizens do
at least some
I think most
they tell me of a world
in which aphids bother roses
I nod and wonder if they ever
turn on their televisions
and if they do, do they
think all those deaths are fiction
actors who will get up as soon
as cameras turn away
I close my books
like sometimes I close my ears
I do not want to know
your greatest concern is bugs on plants
while I watch young men drop around you
and hear young women scream or plead or sob
and I remember that in another time like this
scraggly old men pretending to be saintly
moved out into the desert
to get away from people and what they did
to get, they said, closer to god
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