Someone Always Partly Hidden

Bending to circensian,
Circular competitions,
Which means, really, all of them—

Gladiators and weddings,
Juridical traditions,
Elections, executions—

Each individual joins
In the human condition
Who can manage submission.

It’s a double existence,
Or triple, triune, living
First as anything’s living,

Second as part of the games,
And third, pursuant to them,
As something of a person,

Teammate, kin, participant,
Someone burrowed in the folds
Of those stitched-together skins.