Go Figure

The women next to me on the plane is

holding a blue-light nebulizer to her face.

The scent is overpowering, unhappy.

And it reminds me that 80 percent of the 

Guys who got hooked on heroin in Nam

Cured themselves when they got home.

Okay, it doesn’t remind me of that.

It reminds me that about 25 years ago 

80 percent of psychiatric patients said  

they were unhappy, 20 percent said

that they were depressed. Today, the

ratio is 80 percent  saying they’re depressed

while 20 percent say they’re unhappy.

Actually it doesn’t remind me of that either.

It reminds me that people who think 

that cigarettes are unhealthy will be 

the fifth person on a roach clip. Go figure.

But it doesn’t remind me of that, either.

What I want to say was that when I was 15

I decided to read Seven Pillars of Wisdom

By T.E. Lawrence. Understanding very little

I still cut my way through the damn thing.

And that has made all the difference. 

That’s what I’d like to tell nebulizer girl.