'he passes number 33'

When the headlines are heavy with senseless despair 

and stories of unsung injustice walk into the office all week;

when conversations with new souls are awkward at best

and understanding billows somewhere out on the shoreline más allá;

when the love you crave is on another continent

and in frustration you sprint ahead of the treadmill you’re endlessly running;

Certain songs comes out as a litany

from the permanent soundtrack of your life

as others roll in and out with the landscape,

and gain relevance with every new skittering fear.

They lull you back into the belief that people are basically good

And that believing in love is not just a cliché.