People Are People, Notions Aren’t

When you get small enough, you’re easy
To follow—the family dramas,
The generational conundrums.

Of course, they’re not all the same. The rules
Can be confusing even to you,
When you’re outsiders to the given

Sets of games. But you learn them quickly.
You know there are rules. Always will be,
And the rest is mostly creaturely—

Competition, negotiation,
Access to status, resources, mates.
When the playwright of the enemy

Stages a domestic tragedy
In the heart of enemy country,
Don’t be surprised it translates so well.

When you can keep stories small enough,
Confined to intimate human lives,
You’re easy to follow. It’s only

When you let us conduct our own dreams,
The competitions of the meanings,
Explanations, ideologies,

That we drag the incompatible
Like a storm front dropping, like a veil.
You can’t see each other. It kills you.