My
Other Neighbor, the Dunderhead
I
didn’t know if there even was such a word,
but
out it came from the depths of my mind
where
my muse goes to mine the spiritual gold
that
poets find when working out how best
to
say what they see, and what I saw the other
day
sitting in my neighbor’s garage—a good, kind,
and
honest man whose only goal in life was to
make
a better life than the one the old country
had
to offer, his family, well provided for, grown
up
with families of their own—sharing a beer
with
me as he worked on his table bench on
another
little project that gave his life meaning,
when
my other neighbor, the dunderhead from
across
the street, walked over to join us; but the
more
we talked, the more frustrated I became
at
his animus for successful people, starting with
Shark
Tank entrepreneur “Mr. Wonderful” and ending
with
President Trump, whose fetish for tariffs sent
Canada
and the world into a tailspin, I could take
no
more of his nauseating vitriol and said to him,
“You
always extrapolate to your bias. How can one
man
have so much hatred for successful people?
All
of that animus is going to rot your brain.” That
was
my other neighbor, who’s only one of many
dunderheads
that are popping up on social
media
and daily news like rabbits.
Composed
in Tiny Beaches,
Georgian
Bay, Southcentral, Ontario
Sunday,
April 6, 2025
