It may be true that a single yelp
A single groan is insignificant
Or for that matter a single orgasmic moan
The nursing infant’s milky smack
The stevedore’s grunt
The elder’s complaint upon rising
Though not insignificant to be sure
For the one who discharges it
And what is one they always ask
The flattering tempters
And these matters apply
Only in the medium-sized picture
While the grand-sized picture
Expands into insignificance
Amid far-flung gasses and plasmas
To the very edge of the big bang
And what is one even of a universe
The true picture of significance
Occupying the ample space
Apparently somewhere between
The intramolecular and the intergalactic schemes
The little claws of the animals
That creep beneath the skin
The heavenly bodies that grapple
In their immense gravitational fields
But what reason do I have
To care about the yelp or groan or moan
Of another
Surely it can’t be the case
That all that matters
Is what matters to me
It pleases me when my partner
Makes that delicious moan
It hurts me when that first bike lesson
Involved the novice fall
And the look back in accusation
Or the pictures from another land another state
That limn comity or antagonism
For ecstasy and agony constitute
The extremity of significance
With infinite degrees between
Regardless of whom they befall
And so must be one life one consciousness
That enlivens the molecules
That far exceeds our little Milky Way