Rhetorical
If a stranger sat next to you
at a bus stop or on the bus or on the subway or train
or whatever
and tried to look you in the eye,
smile,
and strike up a conversation,
would you ignore him and turn your music or thoughts
or whatever louder?
Would that man be stranger still, if you had seen him every morning,
seen his smile every morning
seen a pleading in his eye every morning?
Would you still sit with him in your pulpit, vision forced on work or sex or drugs
or whatever was louder?
Would you leave him lonelier still, trapped in an oubliette of flesh?
Such a blatant call to you from his humanity, to ignore him would deny him, would
do the very same thing that turned you so long ago from the arms of invisible smiling faces
to the arms of visible smiling faces
to finally wrap your own arms around yourself and deny
even what was visible.
at a bus stop or on the bus or on the subway or train
or whatever
and tried to look you in the eye,
smile,
and strike up a conversation,
would you ignore him and turn your music or thoughts
or whatever louder?
Would that man be stranger still, if you had seen him every morning,
seen his smile every morning
seen a pleading in his eye every morning?
Would you still sit with him in your pulpit, vision forced on work or sex or drugs
or whatever was louder?
Would you leave him lonelier still, trapped in an oubliette of flesh?
Such a blatant call to you from his humanity, to ignore him would deny him, would
do the very same thing that turned you so long ago from the arms of invisible smiling faces
to the arms of visible smiling faces
to finally wrap your own arms around yourself and deny
even what was visible.