Learning Line

Learning Line

He talked with divine surety

his words soaked

with disdain all the while

He appeared to view

every home as a foxhole,

with hoards of beady

black eyed foreigners

evil from across the big waters

waiting to do us all in

He was the kind of guy

you despair talking to

after the first four sentences

Just then my wife called

saying that it was time

to go on an errand

and so, as the ignorance

in his words dripped

off my computer screen

I left him behind

and walked outside

It was a stormy sky

just before sunset

To the west, the sun shone,

a hopeful bright orb

swimming slowly down

to bed behind the mountains

for the night

Clouds above us hung

as a haphazard masterpiece

with broad stokes

of whites and grays

The air all around

sang in joy with shades of gold

while off to the southwest

the sky was very dark in the throws

of a August evening thundershower

After the toxic conversation

I had been having online

the beauty of the evening

was like stepping

into a fresh cascading shower

after trying to fix

a troublesome, old truck

greasy and broken

Struck suddenly breathless

at the beauty all around us,

I looked up at the sky

and thought of a remark

I heard the other day,

“Some live in heaven.

Some live in hell.

Same place.”

Never so much a matter

of at what you're looking

ever more the matter

of where you stand

most of what we each perceive

is of our own making

We all have a long, knotted

learning line to tow

unique to each and every one

Tasked with undoing knots

we each must puzzle

with our own fears and ignorance

until we realize

what we think we battle

is largely a reflection

of ourselves

Until you've walked

in the shoes of another man

and you've felt the weight

of the tow line he carries

it is better to let him struggle

with his own views in his own manner

without judging him to harshly

Remember, the more you know,

the more you are willing to forgive

The more ugly faces you see

when you look

at your fellow humans

the more likely it is

your own fears and ignorance

are what is back looking at you

Dewey Dirks