You can see it coming,
Accompanying some
Everyday event and,
Predictably, becoming
Like every other thing
In his life—overly
Complicated by an
Entrenched inability to
Admit that he doesn’t
Know everything,
Fearing he’ll be
Exposed.
Deprived of the love
He needed when he
Was growing up,
He’s now unable to
Feel it for anyone else,
Including himself,
His life a caustic
Ordeal of ire
Accompanied by wretchedness,
Although, if you ask him,
He’ll assure you he’s happy.
So we start the same
Way we always have,
Following some kind of
Haphazard script
Severely limiting what
Can be said, adhering
To arbitrary rules
Imposed by fear and
Secrecy, meant to
Discourage any meaningful
Conversation or resolution.
A fragile blue sphere
Drifting in an endless
Field of stars,
Not a single
Nation discernible,
No one person
More important
Than another,
Petty squabbles
Rendered insignificant.
Each of us an
Improbable,
Precious passenger
Navigating the
Vastness of space.
He visits once
In a while,
Our friend the
Squirrel.
We’re not sure
Where he lives but
It’s always a
Happy day when
He stops by.
They spend a few
Brief minutes together,
Talking about the weather.
Neither utters the
Words waiting to be said,
Depth being difficult.
Vulnerability avoided
One more time in the
Name of nothing rational.
They say goodbye,
It could easily have been
So very different.
Not sure what to do,
Questioning everything,
A path in this direction
Unpromising, just as in
Every other, struggling
To keep going with
Little to hold on to,
Persevering where others
Stay in hermetically
Sealed boxes of safety,
Never straying away from
Comfort, not grasping
What it is to dive into
The unknown, untethered.
It was only
When it happened
To her that she
Realized what
Other people had
Been going through
While she and her
Friends were
Putting them down.
Just when it
Seems like things
Couldn’t get more
Appalling, they do.
Standard rules don’t
Apply here,
Just some strange
Perversion.
Passing it off
As normal,
This calamity
Of brokenness.
