We’re each other’s
perception, no matter
how we do not fit
into them.

If I appear sweet
to you, you don’t see
how I use sweetness
to carry bile;

if first I taste bile
in your scent, it’s not likely
I will ever
taste sugar.

What point is there
in being close or
trying to be? 
We don’t care much,

do we — better to stick
with those
we have decided
are us at heart.

Better to cleave to
the tribe and nation and 
so on.  Better than
the one on one, the discovery,

the potential betrayal.
To know another
past the first look
is as dangerous

as the angel with the sword
who guarded Eden,
who in one stroke cut down
the Tower.