A Poem for Your Relationships

The problems of likeness as change,
Always alike, always change.

Too abstract? Pick a topic you like:
Your body, your family, your people,

Your country, your planet, your skies.
Pick your battle, your terrible war, sin,

The person who most recently assaulted
You—how alike were their eyes to yours,

How did their skin against your skin
Make your skin crawl, change you, even

If the touch was fleeting, a wrist grab,
A face pat, a little act of dominance?

All topics have their own importance,
The scale at which their scales are armor,

Monstrosity, nightmare, and many scales
At which each whole topic shrinks, a speck

In someone else’s grand scheme of things.
For some, sickness, for some, bad debts,

For some the very real threat of death
From the sky right this minute, screaming

Fighter jets or an explosion of a volcano
That was a green and fertile home so long.