I

By Anthony Ringuette

"I" is a personal collection of poetry by Anthony Ringuette. In his first collection, the author confronts himself while engaging with his own passions, challenges, resentments, hopes, and loves, demanding readers to confront themselves, too.

Readers will gain the perspective they need to reflect upon their own lives and emotions. Confronting yourself takes courage, and that is exactly what "I" hopes to impart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098319649

Book preview

I

Live

Education in the United States of America: Fuck ‘Em Stoopid

We in our society are to some degree

both guard and prisoner

to this system

we accommodate and continue to perpetuate

telling us how to walk and talk

and behave in certain ways

go to school to grow your worth

because its possessions you need

you’re supposed to covet these things

amass nice stuff

but

you’d better go to school go to any school

so long as you pay

the school matters for the name

the oldest game to make

acquaintance in the vaunted place

kill yourself so you can never

grow up

not really

not as we ourselves understand but wait

you were wrong you’re smack in the throng

of kids with nothing to do

no job awaiting you queue

the line for this other job

you definitely didn’t need a degree to do

nor thirty nor ninety-thousand dollars behind in debt

you wind up starting at the bottom

worse than the high school kids

survive

with that good old American spirit

while you wait for someone else to die

the schools get bogged down by this game

everyone is meant to play

with teachers teaching to the test

and the students studying to be

raw statistics

with under-cultivated minds subject to lies

about job selection life direction

because you want your school to look good

get more money for the football team

keep the lights on

knowing

the first string won’t become football players

not one of them will be writers

or scientists or historians

though they may be artists

maybe artists

or politicians or waitstaff

or plumbers or master craftspeople

who go out and vote can discern news from propaganda

who become medical doctors to heal the sick

not owing to some gravitational pull to capital

who become social workers because it’s honorable

not because of something commonly abominable or

people who are just curious want to learn

are encouraged to solve problems

give India clean water

give Flint clean water

New York clean air

or give everybody the damned internet

to help us all along in this one thing that really can be

a silver bullet

to all of our national problems the international ones

this education can be

a silver bullet

we can use to propel humanity

our common humanity

into a new era of our shared history where

what matters are the truth and good work

but instead we shatter a generation of young people

these poor young people who aren’t taught

how to think or care or read a proper book

how to elevate themselves so they can be

a silver bullet

we all aspire to not having to worry

about whether we’ll have food next week or can be

a silver bullet

where the money will come from or can be

a silver bullet

how they can ever get out from under the payday lenders’ grip

can be a silver bullet

in this world so heavily devaluing

something as uplifting and world-changing as

education

pt. II: Tell ‘Em the Truth

there is one particularly conservative

mode of thinking

that helped lead to our current political trouble

as it spiraled out of control—

we’ve been telling each other

that we really can pull ourselves up

by our bootstraps and succeed even without

a proper education

even before knowing English

which is crazy because