Hundreds of Millions of Meaningful Lives, at a Minimum, Lived Side by Side in Small Boxes

You’ve probably had
The experience
Of living in walls,

And there’s a good chance
Some walls were thin
And other people

Lived too noisily,
In your opinion,
Other side of them—

Coughing and flushing
Toilets and stomping
About at weird hours,

Playing loud music,
Shouting into phones,
Watching loud TVs,

Banging furniture,
Running their vacuums,
Making gross sex sounds.

You might have been spared
Such experience,
But odds are you’ve lived

Some part of your life
With unseen humans
Making a ruckus

Next door, overhead,
Or just overheard,
And you, too, to them.