A chimpanzee’s handshake

Happiness relies on

other people but

unhappiness relies on

other people more

for with them

and the friends they bring

that inhale cigarette breaths,

you’ll find you are not

as happy as they

may be

and if you are,

then they aren’t,

and how sad is that, friend?

*

There is no issue

that has ever been

resolved, which is to say

that some tell me

there are issues that

have been resolved.

*

I’m a chimpanzee’s handshake

on a branch

that it hasn’t met before

but that feels like all the others –

stiff, everywhere, dangerous if pressure

is placed in the wrong place –

while running away

from a human

that it hasn’t met before

but that feels like all the others –

stiff, everywhere, dangerous if pressure

is placed in the wrong place –

and noticing that the human

hoots like an ape

that it has met before

but that feels like all the others –

stiff, everywhere, dangerous if pressure

is placed in the wrong place:

Itself.