Nobody-s
Nobody-s are supposed to listen. Aren’t you Pavloved by now?
1 Who are you? Are you nobody?
Yes, I am nobody.
Oh, I am also nobody.
I see.
Do you see? Really?
Ah hmm.
You are nobody, I am nobody
And we both make a pair of nobody-s
The world is full of nobody-s, don’t you see?
Really? I only see somebody in everybody.
(Well, you said you are nobody though,
Or is it I who insisted?
Nevermind, nuances do not matter to nobody-s – that’s what everybody says)
There is always somebody in everybody, but not me.
I am a void – just empty
Yeah, I was too
Don’t sitck your oar,
Don’t interrupt!
nobody-s don’t have rights to interrupt
to speak out
Nobody-s are supposed to listen
Aren’t you Pavloved by now?
(I thought you were used to being interrupted…sigh)
You should know that I know you are empty too: just like Me,
ready to be filled in but the lid closed by everybody: somebody day-by-day, and nobody every day
Aren’t you at home with the void by now?
(silence)
Republished in April 2021
Footnotes
This poem is inspired in part by Emily Dickinson’s I’m Nobody! Who are you?↩︎