The Social Order Explained

The dangerous people
stare out of doorways
at the safe people

on the streets
the safe people
call their own.

In some streets
they switch places. That’s how
we keep everything running:

call it a safety valve. Call it
the social order.  The dangerous ones
get to be the source of safety

in their own neighborhoods.
The safe ones get
everything else.

Sometimes
a safe one will love
a dangerous one.  They

keep this to themselves;
it softens things.  It makes
the streets sodden

and uncomfortable.  That’s
how we re-allocate the streets
from time to time: when a street

gets too sodden, it changes hands.
Another is chosen
to replace it, everything goes back

to normal, with the dangerous ones
in their doorways staring out
at the safe ones

until
someone in love with the Other
cracks it and the flooding starts.