Just one alphabet,
an imprint on the brain,
and you'll never forget
or be puzzled again.

If you use your head,
you can save your feet;
the mind must be fed
and a book is a treat.

Reading and writing
are private activities,
but mingling's the thing
in your towns and your cities.

The retail and wholesale
of popular cultures:
peacock and nightingale
enjoyed by vultures.

One day in the evening,
you'll want to impart
the frustrated meaning
that's hurting your heart.

Misunderstanding's
a product of fear,
but all happy endings
are perfectly clear.

And something is learned
when professors are fooled
and the children are turned
into the over-schooled.

Don't study too long,
after you're literate,
go totally wrong
and still be an idiot.

Nancy Ames

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/literacy/