Contributor Series 5: Dramatis Personae, Long Division
Contributor Series 5: Dramatis Personae
Long Division
By Rae Spencer
By Rae Spencer
Long have humans sought conflict
Rejected each other
With words that maim community
Barriers buried in pronouns
Enmeshed in massive groups of they
He and she live apart from you and I
He follows a spiritual path
Into places you cannot understand
And she lives in a neighborhood
Many miles away from me
They earn more or less than you
And disagree with my politics
A different gender
A different race
Or named by the million descriptors
That bind and blind
Mostly they are outside our experience
An entire section of humanity lost
In some other frame of reference
You are they and I am them
And everyone is separated
By pronouns that exclude
Miracles come in smaller words
That include we and us
Rae Spencer's poetry appeared at vox poetica in 2009 and 2010. Her most recent poem, Hey, May, appeared in May 2010; her poem What If was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.
Posted by Annmarie at 6/1/2010 10:34 PM 
Categories: today's words, Contributor Series 5
Tags: exclusion conflict pronouns Rae Spencer difference
Categories: today's words, Contributor Series 5
Tags: exclusion conflict pronouns Rae Spencer difference
You have united a family of strangers with mystical thoughts. Nice.
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Good focus and development of the power of pronouns to unite or divide us!
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I love the last two lines!
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