5. 'Deflate-a-dear'
The fifth green life to be nipped in the bud
Daily dwindles under the lashing rain
Of answers in mockery like
'Don't be stupid!'
Of answers in mockery like
'Don't be stupid!'
Or the cruel unmasking 'You know nothing'
Or worse, 'He thinks he knows everything!'
Or the last word in surly refutations
Rendered powerless to answer,
He has entered into a covenant with silence
Not to know the freedom that self-explanation brings,
Not to grow with those spontaneous tonics,
Smiles, faith in justice and reason,
By which the self learns to stand upright.
Perhaps his insubstantial playmate
Was the self he was never allowed to be;
Perhaps, unable to bear his soul's Stygian discouragement,
He had exchanged inward sight for outward -
As millions of viewers do each day, when they conjure
A visible playmate, a more exciting alter ego,
To thrill them with the offer of vicarious living.
Yet grown-ups will never learn to meet the morning
Valiantly, realistically, decently or intelligently,
If as children they were trained
To thrum the void of their insufficiency
With their parents' derogatory noises:
'I'm a bad'un, bad'un, BAD'UN!',
'I'm thick, thick, THICK!'