The Gap (Between You & I)

Don't hide your shit
from me-
though my dress
will be white,
my eyes are not blind
and my mouth
has tasted the impure.
Don't hide your shit
from me-
I am not a child
or a priest
with clean hands.
I invited hate to live
in my heart
with a bitterness
like an addiction.
I injected my mind
with insanity
impossibly tangled
with reason
in a paradox box
I built with my hands
alone.
Don't hide your shit
from me-
do you think I will
judge or accuse?
Am I so untainted
to hold my ears
from your words
of honesty?
In truth, I may never
lift a glass
and partake
of your morality-
but the gap between
you and I is not
as wide as the ocean.
Don't hide your shit
from me-
my blood will flow
the same as yours
no thinner
no thicker.
I, as real as you
and quite as frail,
will look for truth
as it speaks-
not as it is spoken.

12-29-93