It’s all about people.
The bottom line
is worth mentioning.
People,
individuals who share
this our reality,
the real bottom line.
I share your commute,
your rides, your roads,
your steps, your goals.
And yet
after 10 years
we know not more
of each other
than what we did
when we met.
If I had started
talking to you
when we met,
it would have sounded
like a pick-up line.
You’d’ve looked
the other way
ignoring the loony
addressing you.
I see you ALL
fellow commuters
in this world,
I see you checking out
your fellow man.
I see you looking
at her, him, me
when we’re not looking
pretending not to see,
adverting your eyes
when I look straight at you.
I am a person
and you are thousands.
I sure have
something to share.
Let me say
that I look at you,
seeing you enjoy
your personal music
and you make me feel music.
It takes
alternate circumstances
to bring strangers together.
An earth-shattering event
like September 11
brought us together
for a time.
We became
brothers and sisters,
we hugged in the streets,
we cried
on each other’s shoulder,
we gathered together
in prayer...
and still strangers.
Why do we have
to un-stranger ourselves
before we can become
intimate?
When all it takes
is a word from you
and we could learn so much.
But if I look at you,
you feel uncomfortable.
“What does he want?”
you nod
and go back to your newspaper.
Worth my time?
ALWAYS!!
It is always
(or most of the time)
worth a lot
to learn from each other.
Tell me about the world,
about computers,
finances, politics,
relationships,
your life,
what you have learned
in your path.
Tell me.
Tell me why the f*ck
a grand city of such wealth and power
as New York City
can build a stadium
of billions,
but can’t afford to pay
the heroes
of our well-being.
Those who sacrifice their lives
every day to protect us?
Oh, I said it
Economics!
The bottom line.
No, no one asks me
if I want my tax-dollars
to pay for a stadium,
the war,
great corporations
on well fare,
the pockets
of unscrupulous
CEOs and politicians.
But they take it anyway.
No one asked me
if it was OK
to shut down
the firehouses
in the most needy areas
not near the
mansions
sitting alone
among their plot
and shrubbery.
Nuh-uhh,
they closed them
where the multi-families lie.
Where any
of the crack heads
might start a fire
consuming whole lives,
too far for the remaining
firehouses
to be effective.
Natural control
they call it,
budgeting,
closing the deficit gap.
Murder I call it.
Pure, simple.
“If we cut
so many jobs,
we’ll save
so many dollars.”
The problem as I see it
comes down
to the bottom line,
BUT THE NUMBERS ARE PEOPLE!!
DAMMIT!!
10 jobs lost
affect 10 households.
10 families,
more for the Public Assistence
hoards.
Who cares?
I do.
