Loving Quixote Better Than Bread

[for John and Dorothea Gaither]

loving Quixote better than bread
I bought the book of what he said
400 years ago

and then the knight fought in my head
against the things I saw instead
against the writing on the wall

the travesties both great and small
the tilting at the underfed, the underserved
the underbred

the underneath of everything
the sorrow springing in the Spring
the festivals at all the malls

the name of Art dragged through the halls
of politics, not learning
of earning not discerning

loving Quixote better than bread
I bought the book of what he said.

mary angela douglas 31 december 2015