to quantify worth

to quantify worth,

judgments lines up in single file,

to be verbally announced.

it's a fashion show of sorts.

scenics parading in front of cynics. 

under-breath conversations 

featuring murmurs abound.

is there a god of value before us?

we are the religion of witness amassing.

what does proof look like?

value is such an imaginary kingdom.

what river values its banks?

for some time,

I thought living was the worth of it.

but no.

conclusions all dressed up in appraisal,

they are the administrators of worth.

I am just a rainfall of emotions and events.

someone else is in charge of gravity.

we meet up on a daily basis.

I fall silent in their presence.

we dance 

and wear worth as our shoes.

the music played, to me,

it doesn't have worth until it stops.

maybe longing is my measure of worth.

maybe it's an industry I am unaware of.

it seems I am at a loss to know worth

outside of the realm I'm in.

I would have worth 

if my life was all mirrored back to me.

maybe self-consciousness is 

worth as feedback.

if it is,

then I don't know how to bottom line.

what would be my status as value,

qualities, reputational esteem, 

a sense of equivalency?

I am apprehensive 

as if on thin ice with this.

it's an invasion by perspectives.

what has happened to my simplicity

and the caring for others? . . .