Human beings are

Formed in the tragic

Art of difference:

In the contrast of

Shades and shapes.

Of belief and faith

And in the separation

Of incisive lines

That define sentiment,

outlook and view.

 

And in these differences

Lies that dark

And deadly

Possibility

Of seeng the other

As fully other,

As outsider or alien

To be scorned

And confined in

The margins and places

Beyond acceptance.

 

In the face of difference,

Into the place at the margins,

Where difference is defined

As war or ignore or fight or

Shun,

Into these places of shame

That are tribal and cruel,

Comes the force of inclusion.

 

This force,

as gentle as the stir

Of a breeze,

lifts this species,

Whose lurid history is shaped by

The dark art of difference,

To the plane of seeng

Into the face of the other

And in looking there,

In looking without turning away,

We see as if in a mirror.

 

2/5/2016