mystics and statistics in poetry

eighty-three percent of all men are assholes
eighty-three percent of all women are assholes
eighty-three percent of all people who in one way or the other
do not fit into the traditional gender binary
are assholes as well

eighty-three percent of all Christians are assholes
eighty-three percent of all Muslims are assholes
eighty-three percent of all Jews are assholes
eighty-three percent of all Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists
Zoroastrians, Rastafarians
neo-Paganists and Shintos
are assholes
eighty-three percent of all atheists are assholes
eighty-three percent of all agnostics are assholes
probably

eighty-three percent of all straight people are assholes
eighty-three percent of all gay people are assholes
eighty-three percent of all bisexuals
are assholes
eighty-three percent of all asexuals are assholes
eighty-three percent of all people
in all the fluid places
inside and outside of sexuality in all its myriad expressions
they are assholes too

eighty-three percent of all white people are assholes
eighty-three percent of all black people are assholes
eighty-three percent of all Asians, Latinos, Australian aboriginals
members of the First Nations of the Americas
eighty-three percent of everyone in every
ethnicity and ethnic mix you can think of
are big old assholes and

whoever you are
whatever you do or don’t worship
who or whatever you love
the best you can be is
part of the other seventeen percent of
whatever it is you happen to be
if you can
that’s it
that’s the ballgame