James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

Unhumans

(“Multiculturalism Merit Badge”, 2010, original
Oil)

Unhumans

When I was young I was taught to respect all humans
And I was taught to identify humans
By their appearance, whether they looked like me,
Regardless of sex or race, age, size or style.
But I think I was taught wrong.
I think there are in fact a lot of unhumans amongst us 
Really not even pretending to be human.

Human means something more 
Than our physical form.
It means something elevated 
From the bulk of other animals.
Perhaps it even means 
Something you have to grow into
Instead of just being born into.

Today anyone who seeks to enslave others,
Or wantonly abuse and harm them, 
Or can’t respond with human concern
To the injustices we see around us everyday,
Is just an animal,
And animals like this 
Don’t deserve human rights.

We make the assumption 
That if you look like a human
You must be a human,
But what this does 
Isn’t lift the unhumans up,
It just drags 
The humans down.

(9/9/25)

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