Each day we go about our business, / walking past each other, catching each other’s / eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.
-- Speaker (Lines 1 –3)

Importance: These are the opening lines of the poem. They establish that the speaker of the poem is a collective "we," immediately generating a sense of unity and commonality through the voice of the speaker. They also introduce the central problem of the poem – that despite the similarities among Americans, they remain largely detached from one another one a daily basis.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere, / with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, / with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
-- Speaker (Lines 10 – 12)

Importance: After describing the daily lives of farmers, teachers, and mothers, the speaker refers to musicians in this passage. These lines are significant because of the array of musical instruments the speaker includes – from the elite orchestral instruments like the cello to the makeshift oil...