Cauldron Of Impossible Demands

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Ian, Stolly’s friend, keeping vigil next to
Stolly’s hospital bed, was sent home-
work by his teachers, it took Stolly’s
attorney dad and Ian’s boilermaker
father to complete the assignments

Stolly’s dad did the French while Ian’s
dad did the physics, goes to show, school
forces everybody to dabble in everything
without the least competence to the extent
we lose our one or two real talents

In the cauldron of impossible demands, end
up unnerved, broken, although all children
should read, why force all to read literature
when some prefer cold facts, others myths
why force all kids to do maths

When some reveal brain damage when trying
to add – like me, I turned into a nervous wreck
when forced to memorise tables, for ever after
I felt an idiot, inferior to everyone who managed
to do sums with bright competence

I had to flee into words and storybooks to escape
the pain in my heart, developing allergies to life
that still surface when I eat bread, dying of
suffocation in allergic reaction to reality as
it is presented in Western culture

Where God is the imaginary playmate of grown–
ups, ready to smite us at any time? I have con-
structed a shield of spiritual truths and fairytales
to hide behind when cold reality is trying to kill
my spirit, leave me deaf and dumb

In my imaginary world, there is freedom
and unconditional love…
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