Unlearned

as old as wood
is
what she told everyone behind
dusty thick glasses

I’ve seen what I’m going to see and
the rest is repeated for your enjoyment

she was right every time I saw the
world leave it’s senses and I would think of
the generations of idiots who tried to get it right

of those who fell from the precipice to
crumble beside the stones that lay there for
millions of years waiting to
catch the next fool who would climb to power

Time and tide wait for no man

I can see that now from behind her
eyes wrinkled and solemn and dusty

what is left unlearned from
years of full moons and star sightings
is laying at their feet

unheard and selectively forgotten as
fools and their brains are soon parted

we watch from the high road and
giggle like children on holiday at
the audacity of the guile and wasted energy

yet

the joke is on us as
progress stands still waiting
for the next generation of attempts now
lined up
like soldiers behind generals who are

as old as wood