Even on a quiet night

it’s good to know

people are out there

thrashing around

singing about their hearts.


And let’s hear it

for the happiness

so many of us share

thinking about that guy

with the balloons

and the lawn chair.


Later today, when government is in session,

we’ll levitate the capital

and then put it down again, gently,

without telling them.


Let’s hear it for those among us

lighter than air,

and those wearing bells around their hips.

Let us praise those really putting lipstick on pigs,

and sing confusing songs with great conviction,

for these are the back door

to the rundown church

that is the human condition,

the way in for those of us who can’t

stand up straight or wear neckties

with any credibility at all.


This is the silly dancing

around the great silence

at the center.

This is homage

to the opposite of anything:

all that we are,

and think we cannot be.