Tony Hoagland, "I Have News For You"

There are people who do not see a broken playground swing 
as a symbol of ruined childhood 

and there are people who don't interpret the behavior 
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process. 

There are people who don't walk past an empty swimming pool 
and think about past pleasures unrecoverable 

and then stand there blocking the sidewalk for other pedestrians. 
I have read about a town somewhere in California where human beings 

do not send their sinuous feeder roots 
deep into the potting soil of others' emotional lives 

as if they were greedy six-year-olds 
sucking the last half-inch of milkshake up through a noisy straw; 

and other persons in the Midwest who can kiss without 
debating the imperialist baggage of heterosexuality. 

Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon? 
There are some people, unlike me and you, 

who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as unattainable as that moon; 
thus, they do not later 
have to waste more time 
defaming the object of their former ardor. 

Or consequently run and crucify themselves 
in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha. 

I have news for you— 
there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room 

and open a window to let the sweet breeze in 
and let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.

Tony Hoagland

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