October Memoir and Blog Challenge - relationships post #2

Familiar Strangers

Sociology has a theory
about the familiar strangers we see everyday
how it comforts us to recognize
those we pass by, stand at the bus with,
or buy our smokes from.
The coffee shop gang,
the grocery store cashier,
the guy who lives in your building that you run into
when you get your mail from the mailbox.
I went to the museum today and viewed the ephemera
of a pop star
as I stood in front of his handwritten lyric sheet
I was deeply moved
it all starts here I thought.
Without these words there would be no song
no fame
and no retrospective gallery show.
This familiar stranger who is known to me,
but will never know me,
in that instant connected me
to my newly dead brother
when he excitedly told me
one long ago lazy afternoon
sitting on the floor of his room
you have to hear this song!