Are infants wise until they learn to speak?
Can children see the goodness in our souls
as well as the reverse? When grownups seek
to gauge companions, have they lost controls
that served them well before they thought at length?
I’ve known stupidity in old and young,
seen ignorance in hundreds, and found strength
of comprehension from a child’s tongue.

Acute was I, observing folks around
my home, at school, within the neighborhood.
Less often than I met the kind, I found
a character who wasn’t nice or good.
And though our tally now exceeds three score,
the mean remain consistent at their core.