To Strangers

To strangers
who don't know me
I appear as a ghost

In myself
I am none other
than the primordial union
of common and ultimate perception

But those who know me well
just call me by my name

And heap up
upon that one short
syllable of human sound

A mountain of unjustified abuse
with vicious condemnation fit for Kings
and indeed even such insults that would shame
the lowest creatures of the gutter

While from time to time
I seem to hear
the murmur
of faint
praise