What great divide keeps "them" from us?
one bridge to cross
What breaks the bond creating trust
that we have lost?
When we have friendship to extend,
why is our instinct to defend,
to fear "their" gain will be our loss?
one bridge to cross
When we have feasts, why is a crust
all we will toss?
When we have warmth, how is it just
to offer frost?
What dark suspicions, bleak and cold
lurk in our minds as we withhold
the lifeline that we should have tossed?
one bridge to cross
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Author Notes
The octogram is a poetic form created last year by Fanstorian Sally Yocom. It consists of two octets, both with a syllable count of 8/4/8/4/8/8/8/4. The rhyme scheme is ababccbb ababddbb.
In my freshman year in college in 1969, I was privileged to take a sociology course with Peter I. Rose, who published in 1964 an insightful look at race relations entitled They and We. In 2006 the sixth edition of this important study was published. Professor Rose was one of those teachers who totally inspired me; because of him I majored in sociology. While his book focuses on race relations and how we separate ourselves from other races out of fear, those same fears are what separate classes, religions, countries. My poem is just pondering.
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