Power

What’s the difference
Between one who bares their flesh
And one who lays bare their soul —
Their mind, their heart —
And between the ones who relish
Each of these exposures

One offers the body —
Skin, genitals, muscle, warmth
Another offers the mind —
Speech, expression, timing, control

What’s the difference —
Between one sitting on a footpath
Pleas scrawled on cardboard at their side
And another seated in a bookstore chair
Their name signed on the title page beside them

Between one dancing in a public square — sun or rain —
Unnoticed as others hurry by
And another dancing under stage lights
Before a paying crowd’s roar

One with a mouth on another’s body, bringing release —
Another with a scalpel and tube, bringing relief

One spends a life in a loveless marriage
Cooking, cleaning, raising children, unpaid, unseen
Another spends a life in a joyless job —
Nine to five, day after day, paid, promoted, praised

One behind the stove
Turning out meals for other mouths
Another behind closed doors
Turning out pleasure for other bodies

One stumbles — clowns in a circus —
Laughter rising in the ring
Another tells jokes on a lit stage —
Filmed, rehearsed, refined

One stands with a tin outside the supermarket
Asking every stranger for change
Another knocks on doors
Or sends a link for an online appeal

Bending. Moaning. Jerking
Dancing. Speaking. Standing
Laughing. Sitting. Screaming
Writing. Reading. Running
Seeing. Hearing. Showing
Hugging. Kissing. Pissing
Cutting. Eating. Shitting
Gulping. Scrubbing. Smoking
Begging. Slicing. Drinking

What’s the difference —
Who does what —
In the marketplace, day to day
Just to pass time, to survive, to serve
To give, to get, to please, to soothe, to live

Who has the right to declare
This work sacred, that shameful
This task noble, that profane
This life deserving, that disposable.

The president and the pornographer
The beggar and the philanthropist
The saint, the speaker, the sage
The painted clown, the fundraiser

The woman in a loveless marriage
The child in labour
The old man dying, lying
The surgeon slicing
The idol singing
The one raving, sputtering, choking —
And the one stripping, scaring, setting fire

Who chose these tasks
Who planned to be this or that
Who has the right to pride themselves —
Or shame themselves
To raise some onto pedestals
Or spit others into gutters
Who made themselves more
Than any other

Isn’t it all
One shared ground —
A level field
Beneath one sky

Measuring. Groping. Probing
Stroking. Choking. Baking
Exploring. Digging. Moulding
Arranging. Plumbing. Mending
Smashing. Breaking. Fucking

A million and more — doings —
Each pitted against the other
Creating a million more, and then
Again — more permutations
More descriptions

I did this, he did that
They do that, she does this
This better, that worse
This more, that less

Is more more than less, and less
Really less than more
Higher higher than lower
And greater more than lesser
And all that’s in the middle —
More than lesser
And lesser than even less

Is barking better than tweeting
Chirping than talking
Singing better than crying
Succeeding better than failing
Living better
Than dying

Is anything, anywhere
Any different — in any way —
From any other

And if so —
Who gets to decide