If We Don’t Read

by Fernando Nunes

If we don’t read deeply, our wits will wilt:

A pedal drops every day that pages lie in wait.

Atrophy is the apogee of all organic life

Run and flee, happily, from the doctor’s knife

If we don’t read widely, our biases prevail

Plagued by recurrent thoughts—egoic jail

When fools rule, history will be a mystery:

Chastening the parables—protecting pride.