Each time we give that formulaic greeting
we shrink the definition of “I’m fine”:
it used to be “I’m fine” meant things were perfect,
but now it means, “don’t want to bore you; I decline
to mention all the things that happen to me
the aches and pains and disappointments hard
because if I declared all of those heartaches
you’d think I was a failure and discard
the drama of my life as not worth hearing
the failures you would never contemplate
and as I listed each sad difficulty
you’d think each drama just a quirk of Fate.

So all of us reduce the definition
of what in life is patently okay
and answer every soft interrogation
with “Everything is simply fine, today!”