Aren't We People Too?

 

I shied away. I hid my face

For I did not want to stare at you.

I saw your face and it was different.

What was I going to do?

 

I mostly pretended that you didn't exist.

It is how I was able to cope.

It didn't matter that my heart ached

And felt that you had no hope.

 

Who decided that you'd be born impaired or maimed?

Who decided it was you and not me?

Perhaps that is why I chose not to look

For I was afraid of what I might see.

 

I might have seen me as the one who couldn't talk,

Or hear, see or express myself.

I might have seen me as the victim of fate

Without hope or hardiness or health...

 

In a country where there was war;

In a state that killed its own;

In a town that had no respect

For its laws and mores were gone.

 

I considered myself quite fortunate

Born in the place that I am.

I felt quite proud of the privileges I was given

Not knowing that I too was damned.

 

Confronted to see the lie that I lived

As I sashayed from day to day;

Confronted to confront the self in me

That I did not want to convey…

 

Not to you or you or you

And not even to my own lost soul

Till I found that Jesus had done it for me

When He made the cross His goal.

 

How could He do it? The shame of it all.

How could He bear my complici-ty?

He said “as you have done it to the least of these,

You have done it unto me”.

 

Matthew 25:31-45