[Newspoetry] Half and half

[DL Emerick]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/us/16census.html

Half and half.

Half live traditionally,
Having picked a sparring partner, for life,
Although "half-life" would be more accurate;
But which half is traditional, really?

What is tradition but a claim of what has "always" been true,
Statistically, of people in the past,
Usually a bias or a prejudice, itself not well founded,
But masquerading as what is right --
A question tradition ever cloaks itself in,
To explain why nothing should ever be fixed.

Is it right, you must wonder,
For a man and a woman to live together,
For all the rest of their lives,
As a married couple?
Is there any evidence, truly, for such an alleged convenience?
Is it not just a form of social laziness,
A refusal to find a better way to live,
That leads to countless marital fights,
Where the children are abused and not at all amused?

Statistics also ignore "sex" preference,
As if the State always lets you marry the one you love.
But what if love is just a passing passion,
As all the physical evidence suggests,
And that, like dead fish, after three days such guests stink?

Loneliness?  It's missing the conversation of a friend,
And men and women, or even lovers, are rarely that --
For you sit in the home with them, night after night,
Silently and stolidly, waiting for some sign of wit,
Some sign that they are awake enough to be interesting --
And interested in the things that interest you --
But, sadly, people of the opposite sex have opposing interests,
And have little to share, other than finances and children,
Whereas guys hang with guys, and gals with gals, naturally.

You want to be young and beautiful forever?
Then stop imagining that another's view matters,
And see yourself as the child you always could be,
And stop becoming an adult forced by tradition into slavery.
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