They’re Not Me
Sure, they’re alien to
All you think of as yours,
Pressing your boundaries
Beyond the map’s clear edge,
Introducing sudden
And unforeseen changes
That challenge your beliefs,
Upset those assumptions
You believed were firm and
Righteous and eternal.
You say it’s just not fair,
That no one asked you if
It was okay for them
To flee their homes, walk some
Thousands of miles or, worse,
Surrender all they owned
For eight inches of bench
In an open boat so
Their children can reach for
What you take for granted.
How they differ from you.
Their English lacks your ease
When they take your order,
Pick your fruit and clean up
Your careless filth and then
Bear silent witness to
Your intolerant hate,
Knowing no answer will
Swerve their blame for your
Dwindling entitlements.
Why did they have to come
Here, you ask, and what rude
Conspiracies take breath
Upon their outland tongues?
Why can’t they dress like us,
Waste Sunday on the couch
Bitching about the refs?
And who on earth gave them
Permission to walk by Christ
And change the name of God?
(Speaking of celestial
Management, I’d like to
See proof that your birthright
Was more than a lucky
Roll on Fate’s worn, green felt.
No, it’s not misplaced and
It is applicable,
So let me set you straight.
God has no favourites — nor
Could have as our Creator.)
Peel away your tutored hate,
Defy those ancient myths
Selling paranoias
That chain your compassion,
Flay your common sense and
Blind your sight to the truth —
She requires air, too,
He needs to eat, like you —
You’ve no priority
Over them on this earth.
Resurrect your passion,
Recall humanity
From its squalid exile,
Breach every leprous wall
Religions name ‘faith,’
Stealing divinity
To defile God’s own Grace
Then charge for admission.
We’re the same, equally
Accessible to God.
Get your shit together.
You’ve wasted long enough
Flaunting entitlements
You have never deserved,
Chasing insatiable
Saturation without thought
For cost or consequence
Beyond the budding rush
From fractured empathy
And rotted compassion.
There’s no escape, only
A growing weight of guilt
Caught like the plaque that ruins
Your smile, infects your
Soul’s potential to shine
With the sewage of shame
So heavy not even
Your gaze can glimpse
What might have been, if not
Squandered by preference.
