We (The Lone Ranger Stalls for Time)           LONE RANGER: Looks like we’re surrounded.         TONTO: What do you mean “we,” paleface?   That’s an excellent question at a time like this, old friend. What is anyone’s we — it is the two of us here, you and me? We bosom buddies, we partners in crime? Or we in some broader sense — we the people, citizens united in our sacred compact, our brotherhood? Why not make our we more timeless, as in: we who keep the spark of life alive, miraculous life, the bucket brigade of generations, our common heritage going back to Adam, to Lucy? Why stop there — back to monkeys and tree shrews, back to the day when lobefish declared themselves to be us?     © Michael Fleming Marlboro, Vermont September 2021