In all the search

to know and

to find and to

interpret stuff,

have we really learnt

any more than

the ancients about

this self-aware

animal we call

a human?

 

The mystery of being

still eludes those minds

that make many claims

and tick many boxes of

plausible justifications

in this quest we call research,

and in the journey of

the golden glossy way

to ranks and grants, funding,

and distinguished  careers.

 

Do we really

know very much

in this online game played

with projects, grants and methods,

and shared within

knowledge communities

who congratulate

each other for saying

not much at all?

 

What have we gained

and what have

we carved out

as our claims

and lofty propositions,

in conferences and

papers and articles

and books;

and what is our legacy

for the future,

when judgement

will come on

all we have not done

and all we did do

that amounted

to not much at all?

 

Here we go around

the merry-go-round,

the merry-go-round,

the merry-go-round;

here we go around

the merry-go-round,

and what have

we got to say?

 

For on the shelf

the research sits

and gathers dust

and others follow who

do the same,

and the same,

and the same,

and play the game

of knowledge making,

and creating fictions

and elaborate debates

that satisfy those

who think we

should have written

something profound to say.

 

And there are even some

who believe they’ve found

some glorious truth

and brought some universal gain,

and taken the human family

to another plane;

when most of

the world live

at the edge of terror,

poverty and grind.

 

So, for all our

game of knowledge,

to where have we come,

and to what have we

ventured in our

unstated desire

to solve the mystery

and to explore the essence

of who we are critically

on this planet

that loops around a star?

 

Here we go around

the merry-go-round,

the merry-go-round,

the merry-go-round;

here we go around

the merry-go-round,

and what have

we left to say?

 

23/9/2016