Inured

Heat, the elements,
a hundred thousand injuries,
the way words can split
apart and shred,
bits of linguistic shrapnel

Late nights, early mornings,
baths cut short by ice,
the realization that everyone
seems to have their own agenda

That the one person who walks
with dignity and openness
may have been the one never
before noticed or appreciated

Inured to the conditions
of the planet, constantly calibrating
again.