Once I tried to fix the world
By helping an old man
Carry sea water up the a hill
I had watched his toil
From my throne of plenty
Breakfast for dimes
in impoverished Guatemala

I did not know what he used the saltwater for
Nor did it matter
Watching his fragile worn frame
Grasping the ropes with his sun baked hands
The arc of his spine
The weight of the world
In those two buckets

I wanted to pull all of humanity
Over to him
And lift the ocean to his needs
And when he stood in respite
I grabbed the ropes
He looked through me...past me
His bitter eyes told of his Ubiquitous story

“You come.... and then you go”
(Because “you” can)
“What weight have you forever lifted”
He suffered me
As he walked
With the fool who thought
He could fix the world