Poem: I know the truth of things

I know the truth of things

and what is reasonable
and what to expect,
all of that, the realistic
odds, the possibilities.
all of it, but 
it does nothing
to help.  There are
those things, and then
there is what was said
and what was done
and all the rest
that contradicts
and counteracts
and complicates it
into something else,
and that matters, too,
is the setting for everything.
It is denied, now,
but it cannot be
taken away
without consequence.
What good is it
to say that?
No one will care
and nothing will change
and you will say
you are doing what you can
or that I should just continue
and wait as if
that helps or is an answer
to the reality
that the way things are
is not alright,
that the things
which cannot change
are the very things
that cannot be survived.

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