POET'S RESPONSE TO LAO TZU, CHAPTER 7

BAD INFLUENCE

The truth can’t die because

she wasn’t born, so she just

hangs around, lively as a

bad influence

Pestering us to recognize a

clue now and then, reminding

us that life is just as long

as it is short

Confusing us with irony and

paradox and other bits of magic

as she scratches the ears of coyotes,

suggesting ways for them to

trick us into waking up.

But we just complain that life is

too hard, so we ignore her advances

and doubt her existence because

We have kids and jobs and taxes,

the country is at war,

The economy’s

a wreck, most of us are poor, so

who needs the truth, and what’s she

ever done for anybody anyway? We

all know how to lie to get by;

Ain’t that the truth?

- don brennan Tao Ch. 7