Read, Listen, Watch – Written August 2011 (Aged 36)

Read, Listen, Watch

i cannot quite believe we can excuse this –
to a lack of opportunity
no matter what the age in this well fed country
opportunity is not a blank page
and i not,
naïve to, ‘disadvantage’
i grew up with some myself
but you can go to a library
and you can take a book from the shelf
read, listen, watch
you have the chance to educate yourself
ultimately you only fail yourself
you can invent narrative,
you can loot, you can riot, you can be angry
but there are no excuses
institutions may oppress
systems may grind but in truth your life is yours
and it is always your own mind
i do not have the answers
and many reasons i have to sadly decline
but you can educate yourself
this madness, this senseless, ignorant disregard
it is a lack of education, it is pure sadness




James Garratt – August 2011


More poems at
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/


More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/


More poems from 2011 here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-2011/