Truths We Should Discard
I know a woman whose parents told her
Big Bird was pink and cotton candy, yellow.
Now, her mind hiccups against her five senses
(another lie),
as she struggles to compare
a hibiscus to a dandelion.
When we first learn, knowledge
is like a heavy rock tumbling down a hill.
Unlearning is standing at the bottom of that hill,
leaning against the rock, and pushing
it up the steep incline,
step-by-step. If only,
we could use more than ten-percent of our brain—
except we do. Yet, we still believe:
the Great Wall of China is visible from space,
that we might become murderers by dropping a penny
from the top of the Empire State Building,
and that color-blind bulls
are enraged by a red cape. I’m enraged, and not because
Napoleon wasn't actually short, but because these falsehoods
have distracted me for more than seven seconds,
and I must join all men in thinking about sex.
I know a woman whose parents told her
Big Bird was pink and cotton candy, yellow.
Now, her mind hiccups against her five senses
(another lie),
as she struggles to compare
a hibiscus to a dandelion.
When we first learn, knowledge
is like a heavy rock tumbling down a hill.
Unlearning is standing at the bottom of that hill,
leaning against the rock, and pushing
it up the steep incline,
step-by-step. If only,
we could use more than ten-percent of our brain—
except we do. Yet, we still believe:
the Great Wall of China is visible from space,
that we might become murderers by dropping a penny
from the top of the Empire State Building,
and that color-blind bulls
are enraged by a red cape. I’m enraged, and not because
Napoleon wasn't actually short, but because these falsehoods
have distracted me for more than seven seconds,
and I must join all men in thinking about sex.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson