New poem: "My Other Neighbor, the Dunderhead"

 

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