Not to Know How to Accept

James Bowden

                All modesty is false modesty
now that the word “modesty”
                is listed in the OED.
If goodness is scarce, why
                pretend to be innocent,
unawares? No, we’re clawing at it,
                mouths gaping for a single drop.
Not to know how to live
                is one thing, and nothing
to be ashamed of. But not to know
                how to sit before that dry fount
and beg: not to know how
                to kneel before your life
with tears streaming down your cheeks:
                that would be a real shame.