Do not assume that I assume

Anything about myself.

I have fought too long to find out

Who that is.

There are days

(I admit )

When that quest,

Opens a path anew,

On a half-drawn map,

With unseen dragons

On the edge of the world.

You're right to say

I am strong,

But note

My juggernaut impetus,

Stems from my very weakness.

In the acknowledgment

Of all my flaws,

And the struggle

To bind a patchwork over them,

Or embrace the scars and warts

That criss-cross my soul.

You talk about the high nobility

Of learning, teaching, wisdom, knowledge.

Yet you plead with me to stop asking questions.

Setting me a task

That even the gods

Would not ask 

Of a favored

Demi-step-son.

Since,

What, why, where, who, when, and how

Are the very footprints to follow,

To those pursuits.

Asking a poet not to "overthink",

Is like asking a stockbroker

Not to salivate

At the thought of

Cleaning dirty decade-old pennies,

To drop in his piggy-bank.

Besides, you cannot think too much,

Just incorrectly,

That is the problem with assumptions.