The Damn Difference

no amount of perspicacity will
liberate the guilt clinging; three
hours of time-wasting runs a
course leaving fewer options
than complete admission to an
abject lack of motivation – or
release by plea of insanity

you can hear machines in the
fields denying claims it is too
wet to work – since the rain
ceased yesterday its an excuse
you mollify by wrapping in an
implacable sheathe of obdurate
Churchillian defined authority

not doing anything because it
is your choice and you are at
least capable of it says nothing
about wisdom going to waste;
and there, you say, is the nub
of it – but I’m too smart to
know the damn difference
© 11 February 2010, I. D. Carswell