V: Parallel Universes

Every life is a parallel universe.

Walking down the sidewalk lets me peer through portals

into other dimensions, where I might be a computer scientist

or a skinny woman wrapped in a fur coat

or a successful hedge fund manager.

More to the point, somewhere I am a poisonous tree frog.

Somewhere, I am the vibrating air,

the seductive undulations of music.

Somewhere else I am the dirt.

Regardless of form, everywhere I am.

• 2009