Othering
Reflecting on Orlando, June 12, 2016
So many ways to say we’re other
different clans, not my tribe
not normal, don’t look like me
not conforming, don’t act like us
dangerous, don’t believe like me
We have special words
undocumented
goy
gayjin
leper
them, not us
We have special ways to act
put you on a reservation
offer bad schools
move you out
beat you into senselessness
make you use a different bathroom
lynch you
gun you down
je suis Orlando
je suis Omar
So few ways to say
we belong
we’re one
we’re family
Let me try
Started out
in the same
Big Bang
stardust every one
Clambered out
of the primeval soup
as one
Shinnied up the
tree of life
together
absorbed the same
Chimpanzee stock
Migrated out of Africa
together refugees
from the Savannah
The same good God
breathed life
into our clay
in the image of that God
family
The same Jesus
reaches to us
from a cross
We fell into otherness
just as early
already as Chimps
tribes came easily to us
But family must come first
Slave ships
Wounded Knee
Stonewall
Mother Emanuel
Orlando
This necessary litany of blood and shame
Must transmute
othering
into
family celebration
(c). Phil Hefner. 17 June 2016
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