the gradeschool algorithm

the grade school algorithm

back then, when things were simple,
and the biggest worry we had
was choosing between good and bad,
things made sense without logic.
the green m&m’s were good,
and nobody ever ate the lima beans.

somewhere along the way we got lost.
we fell out of our simple world
and became caught up in
the difference between an a minus and an a.
split reality into shades of gray
so infinite in number that now
it seems every choice is between
some enigmatic bad and awful.

we forgot somehow the things
we knew without asking, and worse
forgot we ever knew them at all.
it must have been during an optics class,
that confronted with the numbers of it all
i forgot that there’s a reason to it.
the reason itself made important by
this search for reason seems to bring

answers that have lead to questions.
and i wish i didn’t know now
the things i didn’t know then.
the alphabet was magical.
there is a reason human eyes
see only seven thousand colors.
knowing this comes from looking,
and in looking for the variations,
we’ve lost ourselves to beauty.
in a vain attempt for wisdom,
we forgot that it’s best to not know
that there’s a definition for “wise” at all.

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