Somewhere six billion people live
For every scant connection that I make
Six hundred thousand are still-born
I will never smile at them
Never offer them my food
Listen to their problems
Hold them as they weep
Or laugh with them in joy
I fly over some small fraction
Wondering whether to add them to the toll
Is a glimpsed dirt path a bond
Between our searching hearts
Nameless faceless one that I should love
In some land I cannot name
With dreams I cannot guess
Can I call you brother
Hold you in my thoughts
For fleeting seconds
Keep your thread from fraying
And fading from my mind
Lend you just one moment
Before my mind skips on to others
And brings our life to end