it's such hard work
            pretending to be an individual
          pretending to me/be so much less.
          embracing so little a prickly self
    then wondering why the cuts, bites, and itches
flies and gnats and how did that tiny piece of a stick
                 wind up in my shoe?
 all of that, representative of the ridiculous cling
            to the notion of so much less
                     than we are