The Evil that Men Do

The Evil that Men Do

Timothy E.G. Bartel

—for my daughter

Oh, let me keep that knowledge back awhile.
You know too much, already, of the world—
The January rain is cool and sparse,
The dead palms drop more fronds with each new breeze.

The human vices you known most through me:
Irascible and proud, too quickly cowed.
And books you read are no defense from facts
That gut your calm and trouble your desires.

New stories breed new worries; leave them be.
Find something that can strengthen you before
You take the road that weakens you toward death.
No, let me keep that knowledge back a while.

*

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Timothy E.G. Bartel
Writer & Professor

Timothy’s work has appeared in Christianity and Literature, First Things, The Hopkins Review, and elsewhere. My latest collection is A Crown for Abba Moses: New and Selected Poems (Solum Literary Press, 2023). I hold an MFA from Seattle Pacific and I teach writing at Saint Constantine College.

Photography by Isuru