Poetry: The Worriers’ Guild

The Wor­ri­ers’ Guild
–Philip F. Deaver
From How Men Pray

Today there is a meet­ing of the
Wor­ri­ers’ Guild,
and I’ll be there.
The prob­lems of Earth are
         to be discussed
         at length
         end to end
         for five days
         end to end
         with 1100 countries
represented
         all with an equal
voice
         some wear­ing turbans
and smocks
         and all the men will
speak
         and the women
         with or with­out notes
         in 38 languages
         and nine different
species of logic.
Out­side in the autumn
         the squir­rels will be
         chat­ter­ing and
scampering
         directionless
through­out the town
         because
they aren’t orga­nized yet.