What to Talk About

You’ll find no even-tempered conversation

On matters like a misbehaving priest.

There’s screaming over drug legalization.

There’s snarling over peace in the Mideast.

Insist on global warming and there’s tension.

Defend health-care reform and cast a pall.

On almost any subject you can mention

You’ll stir up an unseemly free-for-all.

But there’s one question that unites the pack:

Does anybody here have a bad back?

The world’s your friend when speaking of the spine.

Civility is never put at risk.

So don’t bring up intelligent design.

Stay focused on the herniated disc.

And though solutions vary:

Surgery or exercises?

A chiropractor or an orthopod?

There’s animation rather than attack.

For everybody’s sharing

And everybody’s caring

When everybody talks of their bad back.