How to Disagree - Feb 8 2022

 

How to Disagree

Feb 8 2022

How to disagree

but not be disagreeable.

Active listening, they say.

Get your ego out of the way.

Learn to tolerate

different ways of being,

without needing to embrace

their vision of the world.

Of course, all this pious advice

is far too virtuous for me.

I mean, you can only go so far

hearing out people you don't respect

without reflexively judging,

or accepting

with unconditional love

as a good Christian should.

I try to turn the other cheek

but the slap still stings.

Sobering, to realize, they think the same of me;

wrong, impervious,

not even worth humouring.

So we preach to the converted

shout futilely into the wind.

Or retreat

into blissful domesticity,

where we busy ourselves

with the daily routine

and easily agree

to agreeably agree.

Give up

on the all the recalcitrant people

and obstinate jerks.

Our youthful illusions

of changing the world.