Simmons

A poem from 2016

Oh, do shut up!

It's embarrassing!

Simmons just wants to hide

Tall lad

Healthy lad

Strong and fine

But mentally confined

Socially in a bind

Don't stand out from the crowd

Keep your head down

Be swallowed by the ground

Doesn't want to be found

Needs to blend in

Individual a dirty word, a sin

Be average

Everyone, be average

Don't admit a thing

Hide behind collective stoicism

Stiff upper lip

Hold your feelings in

I can take the pain

Of never saying an interesting

Or enlightened thing again

Private pleasures to be kept private

Exceptional knowledge to be held in

Wild worship of the ordinary

Truth is a cause for grief

To know the answer to anything

Disloyalty to the crowd

How can anybody dare say anything out loud?

And so school ends

And Simmons runs away

Never to be seen again

Except that chance unveils a larger version of his self

In military uniform

Blending into the collective

The Faceless

Shy Simmons

Still cannot escape

The praise of those extolling

Our brave lads

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This poem was based on the article Simmons and the Social Tie, by G K Chesterton:
http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/alarms-and-discursions/8/