The Other Side of Knowledge
I am old now, he said,
the years strewn
among slower strides
and measured plans,
always conserving.
I am, as ever,
a grateful spectator
of this world.
And I will say that facts
neither concern nor interest me,
for all that they may be.
My heart contains
its own intelligence,
nurtured by another
sort of knowing,
of understanding
the sense of a thing—
for example,
that the sun grows
massive as it melts
into the horizon
not because of some
astronomical fact,
but because it is swelling
with satisfaction
at another day mastered,
giving light and warmth to all.
And why shouldn’t it burn up
with beauteous pride?
Claire Juno, © 2017
vindicating vashti 