Wisdom

There are those who live

In blissful ignorance

And those who know

And yet somehow stay blissful

The first live a lie

And (I think) the second are a lie

For wisdom lies somewhere apart

And the weight between is murder

Neither blissful nor ignorant

Too knowledgeable to be blissful

But not knowledgeable enough

To be wise

A good heart, a good head, he said

Are the cobblestones to wisdom's door

But even if I become good enough to reach it

There is fear in knocking on that door

For I know I cannot enter

And sit with wisdom awhile

As the scholars do

Only to find that wisdom bores of their company

No, I do not seek wisdom's table

Nor wisdom's hand

To woo and court wisdom

Until wisdom is with me wed

And wisdom's dowry some status

For that is an ugly and certain annulment

No, wisdom is my better, I know

But even if I must drag wisdom

From wisdom's doorway across the stones of good heart and head

Far beyond all good to the place where truth lies bleeding

There will I watch as wisdom washes the wounds

And comments softly, saying...well, something only wisdom would say

Running for water or handing wisdom the bandages when asked,

I will be wisdom's assistant

Changing bedpans and taking the blood-pressure of wisdom's patients

Surely sitting by the bedside of those that wisdom could not save

As they pass with wisdom's own words on their lips

A benediction in homage of the one who at first came begrudgingly

But then upon seeing the need, offered all wisdom could give

Knowing that sometimes you must do everything to save

And sometimes you must let what is dead be dead

For there are those who live

In blissful ignorance

And those who know

And yet somehow stay blissful

The first live a lie

And the second are a lie

For wisdom lies somewhere apart

And the weight between is murder