The Poetry of Mark Daniel Milbocker 
The Ecstatic Fool

Fear is not the beginning of wisdom
and though a necessary friend,
must be cribward lain for young bucks
to learn their lessons well 
and bow to silverbacked magic
who dances less than vicariously
from vine to vine throwing his weight
against trunks that have known 
greater bearstrikes in their days
thorns worn to the groove 
of salty shorelines and tongues
atingling alapping morning glory 
milk to smear and smudge the synapses 

here begins the wisdom of dissociating 
from the fixedly functional lessons
we were taught on rainier days 
by our voice-charmed tutors
proving their own inadequacy by leading 
the impoverished into inculcations
while magic carpets baited their footfall
until the extinguishing of 10,000 hours
swabbing decks forged an artisan and
master of life's crafts and artistry
brainchildren of greater illusions
they bewitch our cultured storytelling
with wilder yeasts to leaven a greater 
sagacity
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