If We Wish For the True Keys of the Kingdom
by Michael Doyle

It is said that in life's great travesty
That it was the things of curiosity
That finally killed off the barn cat
But I would bet that if we looked in the hat

We'd find that looking in from the outside
There'd be another tale to tell that hides
And that tale would be the need to form impressions
Freely that leads to paths of the best expression

If we wish for the true keys of the kingdom
We must be willing to extend intellectual freedom
Artists and writers must put this as a declarative
That we must not constrict ourselves to a narrative

There is more than one story from one angle
And all the perspectives we might openly dangle
Make it clear that there is no definitive affiliation 
That leads to only one path for a nation or nations

Ideological tribes might demand their orthodoxy
But all that ever really leads to is a stridency
That, however, seemingly moralistic, imposes its cage
Unneeded, and if unheeded, becomes the blank page

Filled only with self-censorship and too much fear
Until thought itself shrinks until it disappears
In disappearing, it at last becomes death's imposition
And I submit this as the truth of the dead cat's admission

This becomes the death of literacy and the imagination
When anything outside accepted thought becomes an aberration
To be conquered or at best, hidden, stifling creativity
Until it kills all growth by keeping it in captivity

(c) October 3, 2023   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved