How to Overlook Differences

Remind yourself that everything you see—
skyscrapers, sidewalks, soda cans,
pylons, power lines, pine trees,
pigeons, spiders, a cantankerous drunk,
a cackle of teenagers, poor people, rich people,
young, old, immigrants, idiots, ideologues,
introverts, extroverts,
the last person you argued with—
that all of them are traveling
through spacetime
at the speed of light,
as are you,
all of us rushing so fast
even when we feel we're going nowhere,
all of us headed in pretty much
the same direction.

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Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers' Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest poetry book, "How to Navigate Our Universe," answers vexing questions such as "How to Surprise Saturn" and "How to Survive a Black Hole." She hides her online presence with a cryptically named website (marysoonlee.com and an equally cryptic Twitter account (@MarySoonLee).