Saturday, September 4, 2021

He Who Knows All


 

The man is an impressive mountain of flesh 

but solid despite height and girth and with

energy to spare. You've known him long enough 

to see his thick thatch of hair turn a glaring white

but he is not old nor is he handicapped by his

generosity of size. Can a mountain swagger? 

This one does with the self-confidence of one 

whose opinion and store of esoteric knowledge 

has instilled in him the conceit of a philosopher

king. He expounds smoothly on any topic that

his mind -- an encyclopedia of anything worth 

knowing -- has absorbed. Not exactly smug

no -- just simply secure in the certainty that

he knows and is happy to confer what he knows 

to your advantage. And you do well to nod 

and smile and reserve comment. Never think 

of revealing to the mountain that his all-knowing 

facts have somehow been scrambled in the

mind-files tucked assiduously away for future 

reference so what he emits is sheer nonsense 

even though mountains are not known to erupt

in a furious hail of fire as do unstable volcanoes.



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