So easy to believe that sights and sounds
are just the same for all who see and hear
but strong conditioning can narrow bounds
so outer stay but inner disappear.

So hard to trust that ordinary things
are magic only for the chosen child
but feeble reinforcement weakens wings
so fact is cutting, fantasy beguiled.

So useless to explain that all the whys
are insufficient words when anger asks
but silence comfort cannot improvise
so no response conceals and thinking masks.

Perhaps somewhere sometime there is a key
to let the deaf then hear the blind then see.

- Robert Stone, 26 February 2012