The Center

The Center

...is nowhere to be found.

We must be drunk
to believe the center
is where we are standing,
and this world not relative
to our individual points of view.

I feel mean and angry
to call out this obvious truth
with the vain hope it will inspire
someone to see this world
from other perspectives,
and not cause us all to retreat
in righteous indignation
behind a wall of certitude.

If I have any authority,
it's come from my privilege,
my dumb luck and fear
that my life would become
nothing more than just a few
cautious and predictable steps
from cradle to grave.

To glimpse this world
as God must surely see it,
I need to let go of any notion
that I am at the center
of anything other
than my own being.

---

I want to stand as close
to the edge as I can without going over.
Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things
you can't see from the center.
~ Kurt Vonnegut