In abrupt habit does fear congeal, as if winter’s precocious first frost
Whose facile merit may serve but to daunt and plague
Those drawn in quarters through muddy slough of the preliminary
Failing in abundance, taught doubt and blinded in ironic belied ardour.

Mute were it to be spoken and blind were it to be seen
A question betrays its suspicion, and teflon heart craves familiar phrases
Allons! Stand and examine – the field is not flat, the end line not set
Such contest is mastered in proving rules and not merely their let.

A word in wise offer seldom is match to one inward derived
For were I to excel in Plato, yet it remains, would he excel in me?
Myriad may arrive at the doorstep of song, swaying in their lament
Yet not one harmony have they issued of a familiar sought quaver.

Soft grasses caress bare feet, while supple lips send heroes seaward
Yet still does measure of the world scatter madly at its bound
The formulaic grows insoluble as the question increases in import
The maid quivers most for that man she can have not.

For our purpose hardens her brick and our love gives bind to her mortar
Not one celestial dancer dares even spiral save for its admiring onlooker,
She is adorned in elegant sequined starlight dress, woven of persistent fabric
Visible not for her bars, heard not for her warden’s call; Calypso is she.

While guards of our expectation adorn many an evanescent mask
They encircle us and presume we know not their game
Curiously their feet stumble, their hands fail in the grasping
For the envious inveigle whom they despise and the needful pursue gain.

Pull back its veil of mischief, her debility reclines within as a virgin lover
Cajole me no more, and wail amuck at the striking of your blush veneer
My heart and its loves are your privation no longer, not of pride but promise –
Its steelblade flash reflecting amidst the clinkshales where shackles lay shattered.

The Ethical Skeptic, “A Poem of Learning”; The Ethical Skeptic, WordPress, 22 Apr 2019; Web, https://wp.me/p17q0e-9Fh