Sweet words; they tumble softly off the page
And into minds of curiosity
Telling of diff’rent worlds in diff’rent age
They ‘xpand the deeps of our philosophy.

 A hardness comes upon us when we close
These vestiges of wisdom, wit, and wile;
Their words become distant, their thoughts our foes;
We sink into a narrowness most vile.

 And in this human darkness, we pretend
To know the truths of those who came before;
We act as if the world is ours to mend
And wisdoms of the past we, smug, ignore.

 If for a moment egos could subside
Perhaps we’d know again what egos hide.