I’ve seen strange dreams
but they won’t take me
to where you are,
felt the empty spaces
in stranger’s faces
but looking doesn’t
get me very far.

I’m trying to bridge
the broken distance
from which this visage
lives,
while angry eyes melt to sorrow,
and cold hearts become less hollow
as we forget how
to lend a helping hand
to our fellow hurting man,
never learning or earning
the wisdom that our difference
is what keeps the world turning.

I know when they were younger,
starving souls felt a bitter hunger,
there was a clear and pulsing fear
of dangerous people coming here.

All our preachers and bad leaders
taught us how not to think for ourselves,
and turned the pleasure of being clever
into to the worst kind of sin.

I have a sick suspicion
that this world we live in
is not made for fitting
people like me,
but my better nature
sees those sweet green pastures,
ignores the greedy pastors,
looks beyond the hearts and minds
that the liars have captured
and hopes we can all be
better human beings.