We should teach our children practical skills:
to fix a tap and to change a tyre.
They’ll never need to scrutinise
the words and phrases in a text,
the hidden meanings, the author’s intent.
Or know the causes of long passed wars,
the lessons learned, the mistakes made.
Unheeded. Repeated.
Why teach them such impractical skills,
skills they’ll certainly never need?
To read the news between the lines,
to reach the story and find the lies.
Why teach them all the insidious ways
untruths can hide among the colourful words
of people who never fixed a tap or changed a tyre.
Let them learn just how to be
a fine and docile worker bee that eagerly consumes
to drive the machine, to toil and strive
to raise the bottom line, and vote
for people who never fixed a tap or changed a tyre.
