The City at Evening

Maybe stop asking
What the world’s doing.
Can you find someone
Who articulates

Precisely problems,
But doesn’t lay them
At the feet of those
Defined as a group

Defined as hateful
To the group defined
Or implied one’s own?
What could get people

To step back, aside
From collective fights
Fighters celebrate
As the champions

And lyricists sing
As the surviving,
Heroic victims?
Unkindness was not

What locked you in this
Body, this barred bed,
And unfairness may
Have played a role, but

It’s rare unfairness
Can be evened out
Without unfairness
From the evening.