mutual funds and plasma TVs

I wonder if i wonder anymore at all
the everyday trap of learning new things
has gripped me in a vice
thats what the 20s are about they say
storing up that fund of knowledge
of politics and economics and Worldview
and staring at beggars with missing limbs
and not lifting a (thankfully whole) finger
and holding your nose when the smell of piss
knocks you sideways in the local subway

i wonder if its right, after all,
to lose yourself in the verse
of another age, another place
and say, 'oh i know nothing about that'
when asked if Saddam Hussain should be killed

it probably is, because idealism
only gets you so far
you feel bitter about the big bad world
and go back to planning your mutual funds
and wondering if you can afford to buy
that plasma TV for your mom
at least with poetry, you feel you have the key
to that magnificent hall of Truth
and Beauty
and everything beyond