Monday, February 23, 2009

What defines my reality?

A few years ago, I wrote this poem about how your reality could be so different depending on your place of birth or state of health. Your present experience of reality depends on what "patch" of this earth you happen to be on.

Patch

Could have been that frightened girl
squinting under drapes of sand.

Could have been that beaten mother
cradling child's simmering brow.

Could have been that lonely invalid
choking for breath in a damp ward.

My carefree eyes of privilege
scan horizon for a parking space.

3 comments:

Lucia said...

Beautiful poem and so true. Its always so useful to try to understand another's perspective, you never know what they've been through.

A Closet Writer said...

What a beautiful and a thought provoking poem! Someone told me that they thought my son was sheltered. Why, because we don't live in the ghetto or a country that is rifed with war and poverty? Reality is the life that you live, whether it is in Iraq or the posh neighborhoods of Beverly Hills. Thanks for sharing your poetry!

CDB said...

testWow, so true and so beautifully simple. I find it's much harder to write a short meaningful poem, since you must convey so much more in a short amount of words.

This is also great perspective!
(PS, I was saving this comment for two days, since word verification was broken!)