Avoid Temptation

Once in a while a wake-up phrase

leaps off of the poetic page.

I thank gods i have learned to read;

a trough where my heart can feed.

What a starvation it must be

to cope with illiteracy.

But, if we don’t know what we miss

we might go on living like this.

Meeting someone who doesn’t know

the joy of reading may also

impose us with a teaching task

but never unless they should ask.

We may have a duty to teach

but avoid temptations to preach.

Walt Abbott–12-8-2009