Mark Goad
Final Thoughts The physicist,late in life (which, presumably, flashed before his eyesin inverse proportion to the mass of experience)wanted to knowif the universe were friendly –the only question, he’d come to suppose,that really mattered, the questionof a genius or foolor both but notneither. So resolutely seriousbut irresolute inresolution, the question. Kant would have cut the caketwelve different ways and provedeach slice as good as true. The sun,the sun today,the sun today shines warmlyhere. Idiots The world is full of them. And who’s to sayI am not the first, primus inter pares? But I do not feel idiotic. (How doesit feel to be an idiot?) How does it feel to stand at the post officeevery Saturday holding a poster of Obama the Communistsporting a Hitler moustache? How does it feel to tell lies on the radio merely becauseeach is worth its weight in gold? What is it like to spend an extra half millionon a vacation home to escape the pressuresof having too much? To calmly vote for whichever dim-witted home-schooled politicianpromises not to raise your taxes? How does it feel for Michelle Bachman to wake upevery morning wishing she were Sarah Palin? To imagine that the intention of prayer is merelythat it should be answered? Idiocy no doubt takes many forms. I prefer my own breakfast plate ofsocialism-over-easy with a side of confession, not overcooked which, preternaturally, seems good for my soul. Mark Goad is a poet now living in the Boston metro area (USA). Born in Ohio, he has lived and studied in Chicago, Geneva, Switzerland and Boston (with sojourns in Connecticut and rural Nebraska). Undergraduate and graduate studies have been completed in English Lit., German language, theology and philosophy. His work has been published previously in Assisi, BAPQ, epiphany, Bluepepper, Decanto, Extracts, Crannóg, The Wayfarer, Christian Century and other literary journals.