And What If They Broke Wind in Public? By

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And What If They Broke Wind in Public?

Such was our veneration of age as wisdom

That when elders broke wind in public

Without hesitation, we named them patriots

Congratulated them for jobs well done

And wished them many more years of service.

Enthralled by their display of human frailty

And their experience of the future in the past

We camped at their feet, silent and willing eyes

Drinking our fill from pregnant wisdom gourds

Measured and served in intricate webs of words.

We grew to know that no matter how long it may take

The stammerer will give voice to his father’s name;

The bastard, only the bastard points at his origin

Even though in ruins, with a sneering left finger;

No matter how dark, the black goat finds its trail home.