Tolerance exercise

Should I hate you?

You are not like me.
You are not like us.
You don’t dress like us.
You don’t eat like us.
You don’t look like us.
You don’t talk like us.
You don’t love like us.
You don’t pray like us.
Could it be (а chilling thought) that
You don’t think like us?

And that is a real problem.
'Cause, if you don’t think like us
Then we don’t know what you really think!

You may think, that
We should dress like you,
We should eat like you,
We should look like you,
We should talk like you,
We should love like you,
We should pray like you.

And that is dangerous.

Then you are dangerous,
And we are gonna stone you to death,
You, who
Don't dress like us,
Don't eat like us,
Don't look like us,
Don't talk like us,
Don't love like us,
Don't pray like us,
And, certainly, don't think like us.

Then I will have to throw my stone,
Because I am part of us,
Since I dress like us,
Since I eat like us,
Since I look like us,
Since I talk like us,
Since I love like us,
Since I pray like us.
And we hate and stone to death
Those, who are not like us!

But what happens to me
If I am not part of us?
I will be an outcast.
Us will be them,
And they will stone me to death.

Then I will be you...


Рецензии
It is great!
But...
Writing "US" in all caps looks here a bit suspicious. You know how modern Russia likes US. I mean the United States.
...
P.S. After looking a while at this text I thought that modern Russia likes US, her citizens, in the same way.
...
P.P.S. I doubt whether I am allowed to treat the word "Russia" as feminine.

Виктор Станчик   27.05.2015 09:20     Заявить о нарушении
hi, Victor - thanks for reading and commenting! there are quite a few people doing it (I mean the English texts) - so I am double pleased.
Talking about the content - hmm, I would rather treat it as anti-American.
However, since it is a course poem in the University of Iowa - it was read and commented by a number of American course participants, and they regarded it as a critique of the intolerance in the US, and thought it was cool. Funny, but I did not have it in mind. I just wanted to stress the word:)

Валентин Емелин   27.05.2015 13:07   Заявить о нарушении
На это произведение написаны 2 рецензии, здесь отображается последняя, остальные - в полном списке.