What Defines You?

By Alan Passman

I.
Your language, your age,
your brother, this car,
the neighborhood, yeah…
Culture, perception,
and reality
dictate one another.
What and how you say
what you say today
delineates you.
The year you were born,
that generation,
becomes a shorthand.
Friends or family,
your relations tell
all like a tell-all.
Your automotive
conveyance depicts
what the world perceives.
Where you reside is
how you survive this
life; is it worth it?
Fight Club devotee
spouts a platitude
about thing owning:
how it will end up
truly possessing
you demonically.
Bullshit need-be called
on wannabe monks,
who espouse nonsense.
II.
Shit-talker, I am.
It streams out my mouth
in a brown torrent.
You hate to hear me
open my mad maw
because of what comes.
You chat over me;
loudest is your part
in the symphony.
You’re bad and I’m worse;
I’m bad and you’re worse;
we’re bad and we’re worse.
Insane prattling,
my sturdiest suit
is my calling card.
Wait until I say,
“Two wrongs are liable
to put an eye out.”