For B.L., Ph.D.
I
A fellow academic, cynical
Beyond repair, finds me perverse, naïve.
Why? Because I preach justice. Clinical
Evidence? Shocked by misery, I grieve.
“For pity’s sake, Marv, that’s the way things are—
Get over it! For pity’s sake, stifle
Those Edenic dreams, accept the blunt scars
Disfiguring humanity. Trifle
With power? You’re daft! Shmuck, stop, suck it up!”
Thus, the realist. Undeterred, I dream:
Wealth heals poverty; greed shrinks to enough;
The gods agree—dissent does not blaspheme!
Health care is free; politics rational;
Learning pursued; our fecund Earth adored.
Wit and wisdom flourish! We can annul
The horrors we endure. Why travel, gored,
That cynic’s road? Explore our hopeful way—
Graced visionary path: naiveté.
Marvin Klotz, Ph.D. (9/21/08)
II
Naïve, the noun: innocent and simple,
Artless, lacking worldly wisdom. Naïfs,
Ill-equipped to heal the toxic pimples
That infect our lives, must submerge beliefs
That cannot float upon the surly sea
Of tyrants, corporate wealth, and power!
And yet, these same naïfs, historic’ly,
Did whine, berate, fight, complain, and glower.
Your point? Well now, at last, we all can vote,
And unions are no longer criminal.
And, despite diminished profit, that host
Of poison must not (crudely dumped) appall
Our seas and air. What’s more, slavery, firm,
Brute economic principle is done.
Rules hamper predators, force them to squirm.
Seat-belts, for chrissake, prove naïfs have won!
(9/25/08)