it’s a gross empty/full feeling
listening to all the world’s troubles in the radio
the man in India who moves
from town to town looking for work and
making a dollar thirty a day
the woman recalling grabbing on
to the wheels of a plane leaving Afghanistan
the spiral that ensues
in which your irritations shrink down
when held in this light
then they creep back up to size
as irritations will do
but for shame
you must throw a heavy blanket on them
they don’t belong in this morning light which
vibrates with the voice of the interpreter and
underneath that the quivering of
a child now alone in the world