Ties That Bind

“Essence”
Painting by Timothy Fleming
From fineartamerica.com

 

what binds you to me
I don’t know you
we’re in no way alike
we share no close blood
wear different hued skin
speak separate tongues
hold dissimilar soils
in the crease of our hands
pray discretely our rituals
calling God unalike names

what binds you to me
doesn’t our marked disparity
minimize any loose ties
of a broad shared humanity
making distinctions of culture
and clan our definitive essence
perhaps it’s our shadows who
know the wise answers but
how can I ask when I can’t
tell which shadow is mine

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“An emancipated society would not be a unitary state, but the realization of universality in the reconciliation of differences.” – Theodor Adorno