YOU CALL IT AMERICA (I call it loneliness)

You call it reality, I call it cynicism,
though you call me a cynic,
you call it love, I call it sex,
though you get more women,
you call it work, I call it slavery,
though you make good money,
you call it anything you want to call it,
as long as it serves a purpose,
and yet I feel so purposeless,
now and then we laugh at the same jokes,
but somehow I feel like crying,
you call it a game, I call it pain,
you say no one gets hurt,
that it's all just a play,
but it's pain, nonetheless,
finally you call it survival--
impatient and triumphant--
and then we both die,
and there is no one left to call it
anything.

                                         June 28, 1986
                                      --Alexander Shaumyan