1973 :: (iii)

i once had an online argument
an american assured me
the old religion
didn’t exist

as though a desert had told me
there was no such thing as water
that memories of shadows & showers
were dubious Freudian foods

as though the village witches
had never cast their distress
at children’s fighting fear
at a kitten snaffling tea

as though my culture’s history
lay beyond a wall of jewels
as though my childhood education
wasn’t

sod the arrogance
sod the ignorance
sod the idiocracy