The social graces necessary to
Hover weightless but apparently comfortable
Over a plurality of attitudes – or “sides” –
No one of which can be fully embraced
Without collateral damage, is what now defines
An acceptable communicator, friend or lover.
Not as we once told ourselves
A “capacity for ambiguity” orbiting like chimerical quanta
In the airy loops of your cortical apparatus,
But quite simply a very special brand
Of Tight-Assedness,
Seated directly on the dilemma’s sharp horns
With no outward sign of emotional distress
Or fakery.
Without this early-acquired skill you can’t avoid sinking
Into blatant relativism or – worse even –
Partisanship, with its unavoidable implications
That you might consider someone you meet,
With all the rights and privileges of a distinct human individual,
To be actually rather stupid.

Before they decided always to be
Perfectly honest with each other,
The inhabitants of Regulus V
Constituted a thriving, variegated community;
Now there’s a radioactive cinder.