Begging for a Seat in School

Dr Abe V Rotor

A reproduction of an untitled painting by an unknown artist

A disturbing scene to Maslow -

could he have been wrong?

What is self-actualization

to the striving throng?

What's good is the Bastille trilogy -

pillars of modern society:

equality, fraternity,

liberty - sans dignity?

Motherhood words may come easy;

they cannot be mistaken,

for the lips that speak of promise

are easily forgotten.

And the world goes on as it seems;

a beggar boy, its conscience:

lost youth, lost hope, lost future

in the midst of affluence.

The door is jarred to full view

and knocking wouldn't lend an ear;

indifference makes man blind

or takes him to the rear.

He who feels for the needy

with but some coins is a fool,

in a world deaf to a poor boy

begging for a seat in school. ~

NOTE: A student of mine from Iran at the UST Graduate School left this reproduction as a souvenir. The painting was made by an unknown artist, apparently belonging to the post classicism at the dawn of realism.