For the amazing L.K.
I’ve never quite understood what “soul” means.
There, tumultuous, underneath the skin,
Empathy and ego ebb, flow, careen
Through consciousness like unleashed yang and yin.
Just where does gratification abide—
In hot sex, wealth, nourishing our egos,
Or in empathic warmth that feeds our pride
When we diminish others’ painful throes?
Remember infantile paralysis?
At eleven, it took Len’s legs away
While in summer camp. Later, on that day,
His mom stared at the iron lung and hissed!
Judge! Which spoke—her ego or empathy,
When she wailed “How could you do this to me”?
(7/27/13)