The Best And The Brightest Poem by Larry Levy

They may have been raised with Sundays,
filed into candle-lit pews, chanting entreaties
to the Divine, confessing transgressions,
immersing in ablutions, receiving absolutions;

and they may have been fixed for years
behind secular desks, reciting the great odes,
parsing ancient lines, having their ears
and thoughts boxed, copying codes

of citizenship, speaking only when called
upon. Such vessels, empty of mind
and soul, were poured into, filled
with what it means to be refined,

to now presume to know beyond doubt,
in the deep core, in the patriot heart,
what is best and true, having never been there
(especially if one has never been there!)—

especially if reasoning means to swear
to God knows who is fit, who is pure,
who is not my neighbor, and who remains,
and who will be herded into trains.