No Time To Get Lost

Don't weave me into your stories,
I'm already tangled in enough snares...
People are people in theory,
but in truth they crash headlong into each other
and collide with slurs,
with lies, with blindness, with rage!

Don't seat me beside the dull-minded,
and don't trap me between "he said" and "she said",
because I have no time to drown
in everyone's petty cruelty---
I still want to wake each morning
to the sun and the birds' singing.