I was taught . . .

I was taught to speak

clearly; to know words

are weapons, like:

school; Oppenheimer;

Armageddon; prejudice.

("What a smart boy.")

And every hour, I'm Algernon;

("If I'm so very smart, why can't I tell you

what 'smart' is?")

And every day I'm Janus.

I learned, very early,

that intelligence alone

is lone in its perception;

and the wisdom of one

is the misdirection of pretension.

I learned new words:

arrogance and hate crime,

malicious, capricious,

contraception and stigmata.

I learned to cut with irony

and impale with invectives.

("I thought you were smarter than that! Why

would you do that to yourself?")

And every day I'm Janus,

and every day a new door;

and every hour I'm Algernon,

and every hour I wonder:

Am I the idiot . . .