Profile Of A Man In Relation To Others Poem by Raj Dronamraju

I will not be your pervert attempted older lover
Nor will I be your father or stepfather
My role is akin to the cool, weird uncle who arrives a couple times a year bearing gifts and amusing, strange stories

While I don't like children
Don't like pets or animals
Don't really like people in general
I'll mimic the fellowship of the common one

You see I'll retain the ability of relating the multitudes of people I meet to empty space
And the quality of air in a space devoid of life is better
It's purer, cleaner, feels good pumping into the lungs

You'll see how they relate back with the annoying inability to see the people around them
Standing too close or walking too slowly on a busy thoroughfare

I'll make it deep and prosaic
Serves a function but nothing more
Utility cannot be sexed up, even in a bathing suit, even with sheerest lingerie

Utility as restraint on a cosmopolitan internationalist future
I'll be the 22nd century man and go on with no pre-set beliefs
Nothing to force on any other cultures

And I'll always come back to loving somebody else
And what that experience shares with almost every other human being
And what that gives me in terms of strength to bear the burdens society imposes