To Find, To Keep, To Cherish

To find
a person
with whom
you can talk
without hearing clichés,
pompous nonsense,
cocky idiocies,
lies,
false assurances,
cheap vulgarities,
or the specialist babble of an “expert”
for whom industry-specific education
plus the ability to hold a fork
constitutes the entirety of their culture—
someone without mental flat-footedness
and without a bootlicker’s mentality—
…