There are people who do not see a broken playground swing

as a symbol of ruined childhood

 

and there are people who don’t interpret the behavior

of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought

process.

 

There are people who don’t walk past an empty swimming pool

and think about past pleasures irrecoverable

 

and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians.

I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings

 

do not send their tuberous feeder roots

deep into the potting soil of others’ emotional lives

 

as if they were greedy six-year-olds

sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw;

 

and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without

unpacking the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality.

 

Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?

There are some people, unlike me and you

 

who do not yearn after love or fame or quantities of money as

unattainable as that moon;

 

Thus, they do not later

have to waste more time

defaming the object of their former ardor.

 

Or consequently run and crucify themselves

in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.

 

I have news for you:

there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room

 

and open a window to let the sweet breeze in

and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.