our daily poverty

the irregularities
within us
confirm what is to
be gained
from the paradox

demands of
life common
prove more expansive
than the people
imagined

negotiations are
lost and meaning is
replaced with
prosperity

invisible lines
are out of place and
we wonder if
they ever existed

nothing we have today
can compare
to the trust
wrung out and lost
by heads of state

though occasionally
rumored to be hiding
in the slums