Poles Apart by Carey Lenehan

We ran in the same streets
but we walk in different worlds
You and I, poles apart,
thinking, not thinking
about understanding each other,
no chance of ever seeing
eye to eye
Equality unequally distributed,
you see you
at the top of the food chain,
whereas I,
a mere reflection of yourself,
am somewhere down deep in the pond

Skin, stature, sex, sin, sisterhood,
you will never see what I see,
only the walls of the world
that fences you in to conformity
with me on the outside because I,
dressed in the threads of exception,
find conformity too straight a jacket

You see the world numerical, divisible, distributable,
Whereas I,
who came from the earth and never left,
perceive symbiosis, unity,
the absolute art of the whole,
that radiant goddess
from whom you cut chunks
and pretend there flows no blood

You cannot make us alike because of a deed,
a slash of pen on paper
You drown in incomprehension
as we circle each other
swimming in different waters,
bound only by a name,
same same, but different

You have lost the real world,
as you count profits and study the Nasdaq,
allergic to green grass and fresh air
but I am still living there,
treading the wet earth between my toes,
watching the seasons change,
listening to the fading heartbeat
of your cash cow

My earth will take me back when I am done
but where will you go to, my brother?
Will you be divisible too?
Will your company count your profit and loss
and the trees mourn your passing?
Will the pipelines shed a tear,
will your office be refilled with
a clone of you?
Will we be equal?
Can you ever... be my equal?