Wanting things proportional . . .

Here is a reflective poem by San Diego poet Ben Doller (found also at Poets.org and included here with permission of the poet).

       Proportion    by Ben Doller

       Just want things
       proportional.

       Just things,
       not all.

       Not kings, kings
       should be below:    

       shoveling, dripping,
       and most of all—

       literally speaking—
       not people

       nothing living
       need be within our ratio.

       I underexaggerate,
       though:

       there’s something
       to population control,

       something impossible
       yet crucial,

       so many ways
       to be living,

       particles, heavy metals,
       even animals are living.

       Kings live too amidst their industries
       but who would know

       and time
       just want time

       to stay
       excessive

       the moment cleaving
       in threes

I first met Doller's poem in an email message on March 3, 2016, as the Poem-a-Day feature from Poets.org -- and, in that mailing, these comments from the poet also were included:    

About This Poem:   Poems are contradictions in their fixity, composed, as they are, by so many moving, breathing, sounding things. I want the universe to be a fair place, to have an evenness to it, but it seems everything is moving away from everything else at its own private speed. Rationally, I want my life to be at least average in length, and to contain a reasonable measure of happiness and pleasure, but honestly, I crave much more than that. And then what if I’m at the short end, allowing the Bell Curve to rise at the middle and extend to the other end?     —Ben Doller