But what about the courage
 of the cancer cell
 that breaks out from the crowd
 it has belonged to all its life

 like a housewife erupting
 from her line at the grocery store
 because she just can't stand
 the sameness anymore?

 What about the virus that arrives
 in town like a traveler
 from somewhere faraway
 with suitcases in hand,

 who only wants a place
 to stay, a chance to get ahead
 in the land of opportunity,
 but who smells bad,

 talks funny, and reproduces fast?
 What about the microbe that
 hurls its tiny boat straight
 into the rushing metabolic tide,

 no less cunning and intrepid
 than Odysseus; that gambles all
 to found a city
 on an unknown shore?

 What about their bill of rights,
 their access to a full-scale,
 first-class destiny?
 their chance to realize

 maximum potential?-which, sure,
 will come at the expense
 of someone else, someone
 who, from a certain point of view,

 is a secondary character,
 whose weeping is almost
 too far off to hear,

 a noise among the noises
 coming from the shadows
 of any brave new world.

The previous poem [Poem #1236] prompted me to look up Tony Hoagland on the net and I came across this gem of a poem. This poem works for me on various levels. At the most superficial level, its an interesting look at circumstances from the other person’s point of view. It brings up the stark fact that life is a zero sum game and for someone to win, somebody else necessarily has to lose.

The last two paragraphs seemed especially relevant in the context of the current [‘recent’ now - ed] Gulf war. The innocent civilians who lost life and limb are but

”.. a secondary character,
whose weeping is almost
too far off to hear,

a noise among the noises
coming from the shadows
of any brave new world.”

— Sachin

Martin adds

Tangentially, I was reminded of the following quote:

Popular mythology to the contrary, that niche [large terrestrial life forms] has always been on the outer edge of existence. It’s amazing, really, how the large size of humans prejudices our view of life. To this day, biologists talk of mammals dominating the earth. That’s news to bacteria! Not to mention insects and worms. We, and all our bulky mammal relatives, are just rare clouds drifting over the teeming landscape of life. So were the dinosaurs.

It reminds me of J. B. S. Haldane’s quip, when he was asked what his life’s study of biology indicated about God. “He has an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

– Eric Flint, “Mother of Demons”

(available at http://www.baen.com/library/)