In the sophisticatedness of our entrenched fellowship
I am shielded against all the ruinous breaths
From all forms of witless and offbeat eccentricity.
So if I overhear that I am an idiot
...
have you ever lain face up
in the dead of a dawdling night
spurned by sleep
and starving
...
Beneath this turbulent corner
Where we both find ourselves
Our mutual mortal assignments;
Where it may appear
...
Stone-faced, he stared at me;
Unindulgent to life he stared.
And in the screen of his eyes,
Unfolded that ancient history
...
Fellowship
In the sophisticatedness of our entrenched fellowship
I am shielded against all the ruinous breaths
From all forms of witless and offbeat eccentricity.
So if I overhear that I am an idiot
I simply plunge my dizzy head deeper
Into our togetherness –
As we all are wont to do; have done:
For in that way are we reassured
That the fellow is merely being a crass idiot himself.
Or such other moments when in the fit of wild derision
I laugh or cry out, a little loud – and later suspect
That it went little way too high; because of the little ache
In my heart,
I simply lower my waist little further, in my practiced sways
To the palliative pulse of our time.
Just then one of us lets off an over-repressed sigh
And all of us in unison exclaim ahaa!
So he is merely an insufferable idiot after all –
And this is very clear to all of us
Because we know it together.