How The Other Half Lives
Aug 13 2008


Who doesn’t wonder
how the other half lives.
How convenient,
the world divided in two.
Like those who win
and those who lose.
Or those who don’t
and those who do.
Or those who lust
and those pursued.

There is no in-between here,
either one of us
or of no use.
The ones who look before they flush,
then those who are less curious.
Who long the boom
or short the bust,
or eat spaghetti
twirled or cut.
Or men, who leave the seat up,
sleep-walking back to bed.

Imagine, to be one with one-half the world;
instead of one
among the whole 6 billion,
as inscrutable
as every other.

When even knowing yourself is tough.
But to know another
— a friend, a lover —
as baffling as the rest of us,
may be all the luck you can hope for.
Even if a lifetime
of downs and ups
of cut and thrust
and her taste and touch,
is hardly enough
to know.