If I were the lighthouse keeper
I wouldn’t mind if ships ignored my signal
But a schoolchild would not employ
Such dense modality

Is empathy even possible
Is the Golden Rule even practicable
When all the world’s manifestly a stage
And to play even one’s own role is hard

Hamlet and Lear are gay
And we’ve had centuries for them
But what of those other less familiar characters
The refugee the first responder the son of an earl

A person changes costume
And enters a new setting
A gown open at the back and an adjustable bed
A patient in the hospital

We see suffering far away and here before our very eyes
And sometimes we wince in recognition
Acid piercing behind the knees
And in the salivary glands

And if the expression is intense enough
At last we say yes it hurts
But surely it shouldn’t be necessary
For the afflicted to beg for our regard

We don’t know we don’t know
And we use our ignorance as permission
To avert our eyes and turn our backs
And head willfully into the peopled rocks