#PoemADay No.24: The Worth of Wisdom
One autumn night,
around a tenure-loaded dinner table,
my professor's wife asked me if I realized
that I was unlike the rest of my class.
Confused, I asked her to clarify,
and she said I was beyond my years.
I wanted to accept the compliment,
and I probably did,
but when I hear such things,
a different film rolls in my head.
What I recall
is being covered up to my neck
in a waterfall of regret
every time I've gone against
what I knew made sense.
What good is a wise man
who chooses time and time again
to be foolish?
Call him theoretical,
call him intuitive,
call him cute,
but don't call him wise.
Call him a battlefield,
or a host body of conjoined minds,
but he is not beyond his time
until he is more than his immediate appetite.
That being said,
I am no average passerby of life,
I find it hard to stay in line,
I hate to be the guy that suffocates small talk with epics,
but I can’t help it,
I cannot spend time like we spend credit,
I break bread with elders,
I investigate my blessings,
I see what the Lord is doing.
I may not know when, what, or how,
but I know who I must become.
So I’ma let this anointing run
like wildfire in the presence of my enemies,
let it cover my treachery like a garment.
I asked God for wisdom like Solomon,
and He said,
Show me you want it.
What do you love?
What will you give up to live?
What is she worth to you?
Wisdom is no ordinary gift.
Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash