The shephed versus capitalism

On a hilltop as we were walking
We encountered a shepherd
A young boy, maybe a teenager
Or maybe slightly older

We wanted to talk to him about his sheep
How many he had? Where he was taking them?.
He refused to say a single word
Maybe he was shy
Maybe he was always in the company of sheep
And had never learnt the human language
At least not enough to talk to strangers like us

Then we met an old couple
seemingly happily in love,
weaving flowers into garlands
Who lived by themselves because
All their children wee abroad

And beside them was a man, a hotelier
Whose sons were studying to be engineers
in foreign countries
It's not enough for them to stay here, he said
They must go, they must be educated
Because nowadays without education
You cannot even talk, you appear like a fool

I thought back to the shepherd
and back to the days when
that would have been a perfectly
respectable profession
And now probably he does not want to talk
Because he feels that he knows nothing
Without a school education
Even though he is a world expert
on Himalayan sheep

This education we have
is not just about expanding your mind
Not just about job opportunities
For there are opportunities plenty
Like the shepherd shows
But it is also about appearing smart
About conversing
About appearing equal to the world
About appearing in the know
of these capitalistic ideas
of school and 9 to 5 jobs
of global opportunities

And that shepherd boy
He too will not let his children
become shepherds
Because society is circular
and he must move go up a notch
in the next generation

And what happens to the sheep?
And to the farms that lie fallow on the hillside?
Perhaps I have no right to ask,
I who will never go back
To her grandmother's profession
She who prided in raising dozens of cows