Trusting Glass

You question my preference

for the other place-

the one where people smile

and greet me by name when I walk in;

who do not shove a menu

in my face

while I am arranging

my papers and tears

of the day. That is part of the answer.

Then there is the topic of windows-

supposedly the portals into the soul

of a person. Or a business.

 

The windows here

are heavy decorative fixed affairs.

Latchless. I always believed,

houses were meant to be lived in.

Customers want to be treated

like friends. Lives were designed

to be lived, interacted with, celebrated-

not watched from behind

heavy bars and cross beams

and glass stained by diesel fumes. 

Windows, I thought, were meant 

to allow you to be caressed 

by the air outside them,

and know, too, 

what is on the other side of them. 

What if there were an earthquake?

 

I have never trusted people

who refer to me as a number. (Maybe

in a previous or future life

I died in a gas chamber?)

I have never trusted homes

upon whose furniture

you cannot sit. I am saddened

for hearts that have forgotten

how to love and trust. I will

simply never completely trust

any kind of window

that cannot be opened.

Author's Note

meditation on the theme of "windows" for our poetry group

Reviews

[vulture]

great poem example on how the economy impacts us

[Marie Anzalone]

Yes- economy and environment have a lot to do with how we feel about a place. Very much. Thanks for your review!

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

We all deserve to be treated like a human being not a statistic or number. Unfortunately that is what big business treats us as. Well said my friend.

[Marie Anzalone]

Exactly. It is a concept I teach in my courses- the two types of personal and business philosophy. You either treat others as a commodity/ transaction or as complete spiritual beings who add value to your life by coming to see you and interacting with you. Thanks for liking this one!