That none be tempted to trespass
or do evil
Seeing the power and glory
on earth, fulfilled.
I am not one.
Among the many I am part.
I do not know
how many or who, where they are.
Each has a name,
a face, an age—none of them mine.
Yet are we all
cells of the selfsame root in time.
No closer ties
bind us to those we call our own.
For we are one,
living each other's lives, unknown.
The sign said City of Dogs
and I went inside.
The streets, laid out as kennels,
were strangely quiet.