Everybody Needs To Read More Books

it's all very well, knowing how to write and understanding
the need to record. but like falling trees,
we somehow miss the point - illiteracy we can ill afford.
and thus we fail like every other shallow flawed human
endeavour. oh sarajevo kids,
go you to berlin, and ask about charisma and ideals.
don't forget your notepads,
to be used as mirrors, your ears and eyes the tools
of empathy. and we've travelled some way,
we've learned to admit that this ice sculpture might
once have been a stream. but i retain my apprehension
as the picket lines in belfast throw pipebombs at their
children in the family. we can't let our libraries
slip out of our precocious grip.
regress as students to learn the lessons,
to stave off another 100 years of this farcical refrain
of history. and i'd laugh if it weren't for the terror,
the killing, and the conceit of ignorance,
the idiocy of repetition. so come on kids,
let's form another unity movement,
that's just what the world needs.
and i'm bored to the point of laughter by yet more
stickers calling to abolish something tired and old.
at once we must be teachers and students and recapture
that infant state of mind,
and concern ourselves with issues of absorbtion,
not manifesto. this is not just for me or some jaded
punk scene; it's a universal need to educate ourselves
about ourselves. everybody needs to read more books.