evolution was a
balancing act:
intellect
winnowed instinct
to a half-empty glass;
walking upright
borrowed dignity
from the quadruped class.
But what no one ever mentioned
is that opposites
attract—
that our fetish for abstractions
which are stylish,
rich, and opulent
could yet mesh with
concrete weakness for the
destitute and derelict—
that, at base, we are all
made up of a universe
of specks,
half of which possess
what the other
half lacks—and that
some days, we are
gobsmacked, others ruined
by that fact.
