SALUTATION
(by Ezra Pound)
O generation of the thoroughly smug
and thoroughly uncomfortable,
I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun.
I have seen them with untidy families.
I have seen their smiles full of teeth
and heard ungainly laughter.
And I am happier than you are.
And they were happier than I am;
And the fish swim in the lake
and do not even own clothing.
II.
Listening to Celine Dion's "Immortality," I can only fantasize how, if only I could sing like her.
Reading Marie Curie's biography, I wish I had been the one who made the breakthrough research on radioactivity.
Remembering Anaïs Nin, I get impatient as to finally finding my Henry Miller.
Paris and Nicky Hilton's money: I want.
As much as I want Thalia's body.
The list goes on.
III.
I went on my way, in the midst of the world's transformations, being transformed myself. Every now and then, among the many forms of living beings, I encountered one who "was somebody" more than I was....They all had something, I know, that made them somehow superior to me, sublime, something that made me, compared to them, mediocre. And yet I wouldn't have traded places with any of them.--Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics
IV.
Yet I wouldn't trade places with any of them.
