DUMB PEOPLE; or Avicenna’s Coccyx

If I had to make
a choice
between being dumb
and being ignorant

I would call myself dumb.

Let’s face it
Both know
they don’t know

Avicenna said it,
that the highest among us
know what they
do not
know

And there is a whole lot of
shit not to know

Except:

The Ignorant
are at
peace with
ignorance
and take pride in calling
themselves ignorant.

The Dumb above all
hate themselves
and are going to
make you bleed
when you call them dumb.

The Ignorant know what
they know
and know things.

The Dumb do not know what
they know
and invent things.

The Ignorant are always right
And the Dummy is always wrong.

Ignorance is wealthy
And Dumb is poor.

The Ignorant ignore ignorance
but the dumbness
of a dumb man
eats him up
from within
like
Flesh eating bacteria
AIDS
and Leprosy.

The Ignorant are neutered
while the Dumb
have balls bigger
than any brain
or maybe
all brains
put
together.

Ignorance is staying in
at night
because of danger
Dumb is running headlong
into fire
so it
can burn longer.

Ignorance is trying
to match your clothes
according to arbitrary rules
Dumb is grabbing the
first shirt on the floor
and wearing yesterday’s pants
according to arbitrary rules.

Ignorance is thinking
you actually cleaned the bathroom
Dumb is realizing
the back of your pants
are wet
because you didn’t
tuck it in
while you were taking a shit
an hour earlier.

Ignorance is tailgating
so you can get home
and watch an extra
thirty seconds of commercials on TV
Dumb speeds up fast
so it can slow down fast
or wreck
between lights.

Ignorance doesn’t
eat meat
because ‘plants aren’t alive’
Dumb is
not eating your vegetables.

Ignorance is
the master
of ignorance
and Dumb fucks up
even dumb.

One is not better than the other
And they’re both going
to
succeed at knowing nothing.

And maybe it is true
what I heard the old man say
at the store:
The less I know
The better off
I am

But man is the thinking weed.

Considering how limited we are
and how limitless knowledge is,
We have only one real choice:
Are we going to be Ignorant
Or Dumb?

I,
I hate to say,
am mostly fucking dumb.

Dumb like a scab
or the ass of a philosopher.