Only Connect Poem by C Richard Miles

Only connect - a line, a lead, a link
Lassoing together disparate entities
As seamless as a maths-made Moebius strip
Constructible, yet with a vital twist:

Where, instantly, inside and outside, meld
Surprisingly, into a single surface
And so it is with us, the so-called self,
The side the world sees: epidermis.

And the inner, secret self, the soul, which we
Alone know intimately. Sin-thin,
Outside, inside are as one, indivisibly
Bound, simply slim-atom slender, skin to skin.

So this is us: ego and id, ying and yang,
Personality passed from mother and father,
Inextricably tangled since the Big Bang,
Irreversibly knit, in it together.

Beauty beheld, are we mirrors of the world
Itself? Images of nature in the raw,
Hidden beneath supposed humanity, turn
In the flick of a switchblade, peace to war.

Victims of genetics, are we condemned
To be shackled by chains of history
To repeat the mistakes which never end
Tied one to another in misery?

Though we may never sever links with the past,
Indissolubly human, is it our lot
To observe ourselves, while we carelessly cast
The perspective of others into the pot?

Can we not construct a change for the best,
To tackle the test or learn the lessons?
Only connect - since the self will be left
Bound up in itself, devoid of connections.

As hubris prevents us exploring compromise,
Divided by diversity, we scatter
Shred shards of confusion, yet we are allies
In close commonality: the same matter.

Irretrievably coupled in our DNA,
Is it time to look outward and inward,
Appreciating each may have their say
Till, truly together, we reap real rewards?