For The Sixth Form Reader Poem by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

don't read odes, my son, read time tables:
they're more exact. unroll the sea charts
before it's too late. be vigilant, don't sing.
the day will come they nail lists to the gate
again and paint marks on nay-sayers'
chests. learn to go unrecognised, learn more than I:
how to change your district, passport, face.
be skilled in small betrayals,
the dirt of daily survival. useful
are the encyclicals for making fires,
the manifestos: for wrapping up butter and salt
for the defenceless. anger and patience are needed
to blow into the lungs of power
the fine deadly dust ground
by those who have learned much,
who are fastidious in their ways, by you.