Issue 3.1 Spring 2009

 

Cover Image

 

We =/≠ They

Mike Dorsam

 

Where do We end and They begin?

What separates We from They?

Why are we We and they They?

When do we stop being We and start being They?

We sleep downy soft and warm in our beds –

They sleep hard and rough, if at all, on our concrete.

We eat what We like –

They eat, if at all, what We would not.

We lounge on overstuffed chairs at our leisure –

They lack the strength to recline.

We work 40 hours for our weekends and getaways and things;

They work for their lives and a means to forget them.

We stand, when We must, contrapposto –

They stand, as They must, firm against a world that forgets and forsakes them

And kicks them.

We have everything and never enough –

They have never and anything and enough, to be sure.

We control our lives and raise children in loco parentis and swear it’s well done –

They long for our autonomy and raise children in trash cans and know it’s not right.

We have cocktail hour rhetoric and call this our charity –

They feel no comfort in the noblest words of We.

We know who They are ≠ They are not We =

They know who They are ≠ They are They and not We =

They know who We are ≠ We are We and not They =

But

Who

Are

We?

Without They we are not We –

Only in They = We can truly be free.

Euphemism Campus Box 4240 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4240