Logical Fallacy

"Woe unto you, ye that are full now!
 for ye shall hunger."  Luke 6:25

I was friends with a guy once who had never known
hunger.  He was very fortunate.
He assumed hungry people were just
too lazy to get up and get food.

We had some drinks one night and
he told me as much, but I tried to explain
46 million Americans live in poverty
including 20 percent of our kids.

As his fingers pushed hair from his face
he had the deliberate look of someone
who needs to dodge facts because they
conflict with their world view.

He took a drink and smiled small.
Elvis Costello sang on the jukebox,
"and I would rather be anywhere else
but here today."  His foot tapped.

In the moment he set his drink
on the faux wood bar I realized
that he would no longer be my friend.
We might smile and nod

as acquaintances do, but
he knew that I knew, and I knew
that he knew that I wasn't buying
his great philosophical leap that

a laziness epidemic creates poverty.