From the discipline
of staring blankly.
There is a world of wisdom
underneath those callous skins.
The wisdom of having learnt a great deal.
Obviously the old man,
Or woman,
Who whines all day.
About taxi drivers
Waiters
Maids
For all the kinds of service
Done wrong to them,
Except their own,
Haven’t learnt shit about patience.
And mercy,
And gratitude,
And expects none.
And the fetid flesh stinks.
But they have learnt so much about the opposites.
They know a world of bitterness.
And it is in that flesh.
The wisdom of their flesh
That stinks the earth,
And wraps the babies now.
