I sometimes feel
I don’t know
what things are made of anymore,
don’t understand
how people live,
what they do behind their doors,
how they afford to be there,
how they fill their days,
how they find a way
to make it all work

And then sometimes I get a chance to see
the grand complexity of someone else’s life —
the trials and hurdles,
joys and satisfaction,
with what they’ve made their lives
and what they have been given

And there I see the way
that we are all the same,
however different our paths have been —
we radiate our fervor from the same source,
we share, at heart, the same core.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 7, 2017