Titles And Respect Poem by Raj Arumugam

I am told often
(all that,
presumably, to nurture some sophistication in me)
that one must address people with an apt title
or salutation:
Sir, Miss, Mr, Mrs, Lady, Guru,
Your Majesty, Most Revered Sir;
Most Holy Representative of God;
Mr President I Kiss Your Feet;
God Almighty,
Dr, Professor, Most Reverend, Your Highness …
and the likes;
this, I am advised (or warned as the case may be) ,
shows one’s respect
but what I cannot fathom in my simplicity is
if it is the case that I have no respect for a kangaroo
if I simply call it joey
which simply anyway crawls back to its mum’s teats;
and if a child laughs and speaks to me with no titles
but simply with a: Hi, my ball is in your yard;
could you throw it over the fence, please? -
and likewise I do not throw a title at the child,
are the two of us - child and neighbor - guilty of disrespect?
and what if my wife and I do not greet each other:
Good morning, Sir or Good morning, Madam;
or Good Night, Sir or Good Night, Madam…
are we two guilty of a lack of finesse and not having respect?
in all these
I truly and simply, and respectfully, cannot see
if we have, or do not have any respect for one another…
But still I am chided by the respect-obsessed world;
ah, the ways of the clever world are indeed mysterious
and beyond a common man’s understanding…