Pets to watch, we forget
their names so easily.
Beauty is often silent,
nameless. Like any life
elevated to lighting, a bowl,
special considerations, we
don’t want them to die,
but we forget they live.
Lives so dear, we make
a fuss at parting, miss them
when they are gone. Are we
still talking about fish?
What if we had to physically
keep each other alive? What if
we had to give what was needed
to keep everyone, even people
we don’t know, alive? What if
we depended on others
for the breaths we take, for our
continued existence, for the will
to go on? Then these songs
would be free for the listening,
free to go where they are needed.
Don’t we? Aren’t they?