“Same difference,” frustration mumbled.
not always said the farmer
whose acute hearing had been forgotten.
He came to farming late
from teaching mathematics
equivalent and equal were similar, but different.
An example
many years before
a doctor friend worked in outback Australia
early one evening the doctor called to a farm
a worker gored by a bull
during the night the injury gathered pace.
The farmhand died.
In the morning the landowner demanded answers
the doctor unfamiliar with such hostile contempt
lamely proffered it was not always possible to be a lifesaver
“you useless fucking bastard,” scorn screamed
“you didn’t have to save his life
you only had to keep him alive” – until the morning and an aircraft.
Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry 