Lost in Translation

 

So fast to pass judgment, so quick to criticize

whenever someone lives outside the confines of your norm—

how long before you realize all the ones you’ve victimized,

the many you have ostracized because they don’t conform?

You believe in black and white, day is day and night is night,

boys are boys and girls are girls and that's how it should be.

But we each see things differently,  I accept all equally

while you proclaim them ‘deviant,’ aberrant in your sight.

So quickly you embrace ideas that play to one another’s fears

never looking further than the lies that you dispense—

now someone I thought I knew shares his narrow point of view

reduced into a bigot who embraces ignorance.

 

© Ginny Brannan 2023