The World I See

Every so often
I have to remind myself
That the world I see
On a day to day basis
Is only the tinniest corner
Of the world in which I live.
Even within the city
In which I reside,
The circle in which I travel
Is infinitesimally small,
And unrepresentative
Of the city as a whole.
There was a time
When it seemed
That almost everyone I met
Was an engineer
Or a geologist.
Even the secretaries
And draftsmen
Had college degrees.
I got to thinking that
Everybody had a degree!
Then one day
I took my family
Over to a local gravel pit
For a swim,
And the people we met there
Were definitely not
College educated,
And their language
Wasn’t at all like
The English I knew.
Just when I get used to
Seeing the world
A certain way,
Something invariably occurs
That doesn’t quite fit
The image I have of life,
And I will be reminded
Of how little of the world
I actually see.
The Fourth of July
Is a prime example.
Every time I go out
To watch the fireworks display
At the local college,
I encounter multitudes of people
I have never seen before
And will most likely
Never see again.
Where do they all come from?
I could crisscross our town
Ten-thousand times in a year
And never encounter
A one of them!
Where do they all hide?
Is my circle really
That restrictive?
It seems that I need to circulate more
In circles other than my own.