"life’s white machine"
   Geoffrey G. O’Brien and Jeff Clark
 
We’re all tenants, of one kind
or another: lodgers, proprietors,
houseguests. So what matters is
what matters for most of us.
We shrink in silken alarm
in the corridor–someone is coming?
But boa-clad ushers receive us.
 
We were told we were on message,
were the subject, or topic. In fact
it made a little difference
 
but not enough to disturb or quiet us.
Concluding, perhaps rightly, we
were of the one or other sort, you signed off.
It was OK to take everything,
though not to want it.