Talk About Trust

Mornings I hold my electric toothbrush
under cascading floods of water
applying the paste, jamming one end
into a socket, 240 surging volts
and the other into my mouth
Talk about trust

And driving at night on twisting roads
I hold steady to a speed far beyond
the range of my headlights
rounding each curve in peace
my mind on other things
And it's trust again that carries me

But my trusting self is controverted
limited to the things I can't control
like airplanes taking off
pills I swallow and bridges crossed
the transactions of my life
Accepted, risked without a thought

Yet I lock my house and lock my car
keeping a hand on my wallet
aware of my accomplice in the street
the one who trusts his welfare to strangers
but wouldn't stop to light my cigarette
Sharing a faith that's limited to syndicates

What franchise allows my trusting step
into opened elevator-doors, confident
without looking, the elevator's there
but causes such a shiver up my spine
at strangers' footsteps in the night
So trustful of the many, untrustful of the one