Another Strange Juxtaposition
By Michael Paul

Another strange juxtaposition or two
in the newsfeed today,

someone called upon Krishnamurti
to denounce all labels as violence.

If I am this or that, in gist,
makes you into the Other.

Someone else piped up and called Bullshit!
then quoted the dollar bill: “E Pluribus Unum”*

I said amen, but added that until:
“In tempora restitutionis omnium quae locutus est Deus”**

we’d all be busy squabbling, busy like
indigenous folk saying we are The Real People.

Busy like gang-bangers defending our turf
with mack 10s and Ouzis.

Busy like Shi’ites and Sunnis
replicating Catholics and Protestants,

replicating Conquistadors and Conquered.
Repeating history like Einstein’s

definition of madness – doing the same thing over
and over an over – expecting different results.

Over and over and over, I’ve gone mad myself
in the struggle to find my way home,

to find my tribe, to be where I belong.

Then I saw twin posts – one a beloved friend
standing in front of The Wailing Wall, with an I heart

T-shirt on. Another from a new friend
calling out “Ya Allah! – save my brothers and sisters

in Gaza!” Oh God, yes, and in Compton and Cleveland!
India and Pakistan! China and Tibet!

In red and blue and gay and straight.
In slave and free and man and woman.
In black white red yellow brown and
Yin and Yang, oh God yes…

Save all our brothers and sisters,
save us all from segregation!

Over cereal my wife told me
I’d been doing the Superior Dance.

I sat corrected.

* One from many
** The restitution of all things of which God has spoken

Michael Paul is an international man of mystery, and we can only presume he is the mythic crime lord Keyser Söze.