Jim Yerman | + Follow Poet |
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Our Uniqueness

There is a world within our language that’s we’ve spoken since our childhood…
but when it is misused…does more harm than good.

DIFFERENT is the word and I wonder…wouldn’t it cause less fuss…
If when we saw another person…we didn’t see them as different from us.

For when we see someone as different…fear seeps into our hearts and minds
and where there’s fear…animosity and hatred and prejudice…are not often far behind.

What starts out merely as a way to tell me apart from you…and you apart from me…
somehow ends up with each of us treating the other differently.

We end up in a world of labels…a world of discrimination…of chaos and entropy…a world of injustice, a world of oppression…a world of wars and bigotry.

A world where suspicion and distrust rule…and seeds of animosity are sown…all because we find traits in others….that are different from our own.

What if there was a different word than different that would help our thinking to revise?
That would allow us to look upon each other with less judgmental eyes…

What if we weren’t afraid of our differences…but reveled in their mystique?
What if instead of seeing others as different…we saw each other as UNIQUE?

Perhaps then we‘d focus less on the differences and become more aware
of not only each other’s uniqueness…but what that uniqueness has to share.

He or she is different…Do you hear how in that word hoe negativity abounds?
He or she is unique….Do you hear how wonderful that sounds?

I magine, by now, you’re thinking how different I am…perhaps you’re disagreeing…wondering how I can hope and pray for a world there’s no chance I will be seeing.

Yes…as I hope to live in a world where people are more accepted and their differences less critiqued….you may call me different…but I prefer the word…unique.

Copyright © Jim Yerman | Year Posted 2021

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