(87 year-old man to his great-grandson)

I speak to you of history

of facts

But you are having

none of that

They have taught you instead

to avoid facts

As facts get in the way

of your career

I speak to you of art but

you are into design

The computer has become

your culture

I fought against Hitler & the Nazis

you haven’t a clue

I speak to you of injustice

against women

And you reply you are

pro choice

I ask you to consider the planet

you see it as a market

I tell you of the wars of the sixties

you say you have the CDs

I want you to think about ideas

you say it’s all in the data

When you were four I gave you

your first real book

At twenty-four you read for self-help

so you can prey upon others

I should take my gun from the wars

and put an end to you

Before you make everything

so much more worse

Yet I still have these foolish hopes

you will reject all this evil

That you will learn to think and act

like a human being

You say I am old and full of hate

but you are hatefulness itself

You talk of political correctness

I know about right and wrong

I will not give in to death because you

have already canceled me out

I must live to see the world

as it would have been

Long ago if we had lost that first war

if I had died in it

If we had never had your mother

if you had never been born

If I knew then what I know now

making all of it meaningless

And that is what you want it to be

isn’t it?

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, VT.