THE OPPOSITE OF ANYTHING
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.