Total ignorance is better than forming, too early,

life-long-opinions based on a few, weak, incomplete ideas.

The stubborn belligerence that became his way of life,

his unsubstantiated proclamations

against any alternatives, any resistance I mustered

could only be scoffed at by me,

his better educated son.

His bitter disappointment in me,

his only son,

who would never agree with his supposed

self authenticating opinions,

could only deepen until it wasn’t just

his ideas I disdained,

it was him.

And that remorse he must have felt

would follow him

down into the depths of the sea,

mixed with the last of his ashes.

Yes, Mr. Pope.

A little learning is a dangerous thing,

not only because of its similarity to ignorance,

but because of what is lost

in defense of its own biased nonsense.