In this caustic culture of ours
arguments always seem to be
framed in terms of war —
Her criticisms are right on target.
He shot down all my claims.
Attackers vs defenders
winners vs losers
zero sum clashes ending in
painful Pyrrhic victories —
It was a battle of wills.
I demolished his argument.

This is tired
worn-out
hopeless metaphor,
unnecessarily violent,
ultimately infertile.
All of us are
born on the battlefield,
reluctant child soldiers,
drafted into tired and ugly
battles of opinion and fact,
waged across the bloodied nose
of our collective
face.

But —
imagine instead
a culture where arguments
are framed by something
else entirely,
a far less hostile metaphor.
What do you suggest?
I propose DANCE.
Lights on —
all of a sudden we are performers
and our goal is to engage
in a balanced, aesthetically
pleasing exchange of ideas
colliding,
combining,
combusting.

We’d view our
differences differently —
Her criticisms are keeping me on my toes.
We'd experience them differently —
He's dancing to a different tune and
I may be out of step.
We'd carry them out differently —
Now that I'm thinking on my feet…
And maybe we'd live together
altogether differently —
Let me give your
wild idea a whirl.

Nobody Reads Poetry

Wild Idea