Fool’s Gold

another farce

Streets smarts may be one thing
Intelligence another
Cunning is two things
And experience — your lover
Sink into it, succinctly
But don’t blow your cover
Take it, run with it
Use it …to wit
Use it as knowledge
As wisdom, as grit
But don’t be fooled
Tempted to sit
For the greatest purveyors
Of narcissus and tempt
Rule by inclination
A rule that they’ve bent
A fallacy, a fable
Set in cement
For it’s around a little finger
One ’s held in contempt
A narrative to sell
For one must endure
But who is the victim
And who is the cure
Thus, where the tire hits the road
Being flattered by airs
… being flattened by load
The driver of street smarts
Carries the load
Stealing empathy as cure
With cunning to goad
The winner? Emergent
By fool or by shroud
Encapsulated in the vortex
Where the tire hit the road
Ensconced in each other
Intelligence long blown
Wisdom defeated
In a cruel game of thrones
Fool’s gold persists
It holds a free pass
Poverty its inheritance
And shame it’s a farce