by Cheryl Merrick
They look, but they don’t see.
As a child I thought
they were teasing our teacher,
but gradually I came to know
that they really could
see and not comprehend
and hear and not understand.
At first, feeling sorry for their weaknesses,
I attempted to help them,
only to realize,
many emotional bruises later,
that not only do they not see,
they do not want to see.
They want a world; simple, logical, concrete,
with no hidden meanings,
no goals to search out,
and no long term consequences
to bother them.
Plain, simple, straightforward–
and all wrong,
They hang unto the elephant’s tail,
believing it a rope,
confident they know all.
Secure in their knowing nods,
they patronizingly dismiss
my earnest explanations of elephants
as imaginative child’s tales,
or mere philosophical musings
with no relevance to “real” life.
Frustrated and tired,
I finally found peace
in a tranquil world of my own making,
venturing out only to fan
sparks in the young.
With time now to ponder meaning
and learn truths,
I compose messages of
enlightenment and hope
and send them up as flares
to glow in a world
content with darkness.
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