Monday, March 28, 2011

Blindness

The teacher from the north

came, according to the writer,

so that those who are blind

might be made able to see;

and so that those whose sight is normal

might be rendered blind.

What a puzzle!

Elsewhere, in a similar vein,

another writer tells us, the teacher

talks of people who cannot see

who offer themselves

as guides to others.

Our blind leaders are many;

their popularity in the present age

continues undiminished..

Some consume the captive inches

of self-righteous newspaper columns

with their superior wisdom;

whilst others utter their shrill

prognostications

over compromised airwaves

for an uncritical audience

which takes smug reassurance

in the confirmation of its prejudices.

Still others rail with conceit

from the house upon democracy’s hill.

Like the failed prophets of the past,

these various blind guides

trade upon cheap outrage

and even cheaper fears.

Leading their followers in deluded triumph

on their anxious path,

they arrive at a sad place where others

will be required to pay the costs

and where they will unwittingly

participate in their own destruction.

©2011 Ken Rookes

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