I Can Do Love

 I Can Do Love

There are times when I move outward 

offer emotional band-aids to cover bruises 

and cuts, daily skirmishes where ants and worms

suffocate beneath streets paved with concrete

making every corner the exclusive domain

where economy is the ruling language, 

where racks of new clothes show exquisite colours

and showered shaved staff smile sweetly

your smooth transition—educated citizen 

to consumer where happy thoughts decorate the mall 

but the homeless and hungry are not allowed

where it is easy to look where you’re going

to find the thing you need for your ambitions 

and where it is bad manners to speak 

of anything outside business positivity

as if it’s a crime to care about those who suffer 

and where it is troublesome to express an opinion 

which does not have a solution neatly folded within

where it shatters the day to raise concerns that point 

to our social failure 

to celebrate how you have evolved 

from the cave—your ancestors 

striding through anxiety towards that distant field 

where the poet will meet you.

(from Sleep With Me: Lullaby for an Anxious Planet. Ekstasis 2020)