In Men We Trust

“A government of laws

and not of men." – John Adams

Every day,

I trust that strangers approaching

on the sidewalk will walk past and not attack,

trust that drivers will stop at the red light

as I pass through on green.

I trust that the waitress has not spit on my pizza,

that the bridge’s steel girders aren’t rusted

and flaking away like dandruff.

I trust that the man reaching into his pocket

is not reaching for a gun, that nearby strangers

who might carry concealed guns have the same trust.

I trust that my lover is not cheating,

that my employer trusts me to continue in my job.

Friends trust that gluten-free noodles

are what they claim to be, trust that I remembered

not to add flour to the gravy.

I trust my neighbor to be careful with the ash

from her cigarette as she smokes on the deck.

I trust that flaws in the jet’s thin metal skin

are within tolerance, that the gaps between atoms

hold against stresses at forty thousand feet,

will not rip open and hurl me to the ground.

And it seems, Mr. Adams, I have no recourse

but to trust the human flaws of senators, governors,

and presidents, that they lie within tolerance

of gaps in the law.

Glen Cassidy