A Ritual to Read to Each Other<br /><br /><br />If you don’t know the kind of person I am<br />and I don’t know the kind of person you are<br />a pattern that others made may prevail in the world<br />and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.<br /><br />For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,<br />a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break<br />sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood<br />storming out to play through the broken dyke.<br /><br />And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,<br />but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,<br />I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty<br />to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.<br /><br />And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,<br />a remote important region in all who talk:<br />though we could fool each other, we should consider---<br />lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.<br /><br />For it is important that awake people be awake,<br />or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;<br />the signals we give---yes or no, or maybe---<br />should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.