*****

Recorded Reading (1:26): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bphdlsfo36olzo1e2m0n4/Whole-is-Greater.mp3?rlkey=baxibll4otw7ab4uzsy17r0es&dl=0

*****

Whole is Greater

The price to pay for faking it
Is not to know how you might feel,
The price to pay for lying
Is not to tell real from unreal,

The price for cheating someone
Is to cheated be yourself,
The price for wrong abandonment
Is to be put on a shelf

The moment that your usefulness
To someone else is done,
Making others fearful feel
Will teach you how to run,

The price for stealing is to lose
Much that you might own
As someone who leaves other ones’
Possessions well alone,

The price to pay for giving in
To inapprop’riate lust
Is just to stand and have to watch
When part from you they must ~

‘Tis by your own beliefs must be
That you companions find
And by their own beliefs they will
Unpleasantly remind

The individual who feels the need
To be unfair his brother to,
Imagining himself thus
Have some happiness in view,

For if the two of them, in time,
Worked together as a team
What sunshine of abundance
Upon them both would gleam!

This is of the yet arcane
But necessary future arts:
In human equation, the sum
Comes to much more than its mere parts

*****

Homeless until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ this poet presently lives under perpetual threat of towing with all possessions should her 23-year-old van stop running for any reason.

She is badly in need of a modest reserve with which to field any emergency which might occur.

Donors may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S. It does take several days for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts.