LAMENT OF THE SKEPTIC

“I hold these Truths to be self-evident”
Employs a phrase I wish I could endorse,
Implying certain Truths were Heaven sent:
Hence valid and unquestionable perforce.

But all the truths I know seem relative,
Contingent on peculiar circumstance,
Not perfect Absolutes by which to live,
At best but dreams that bind me in a trance

Until the spell dispels and, undeluded, I
Return to skeptical uncertainty,
Disheartened for a while, until I try
Yet one more hope for True Philosophy.

     What joy, what cosmological relief
     If I could own True Knowing, not belief!

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