because I’ve known rejection
I identify with those cast out

hated for simply being
scorned for expressing doubts

the impulse to exclude
comes from projected fear

what we do to them, they might do to us
if we let them linger near

the rage and mortal terror
distorts the scheming mind

you become a professional victim
even while victimizing your own kind

the stranger, the unique, the alien
my attention perks right up

these others signal something
and I drink the offered cup

I seek the foreign shore
and the solitude of silence

watch me wander wakeful
despite the despair of American violence.