Fallacy

You think you can know a person by their face,

or their skin, or their names, or even their voices—

but there's only so much you can judge away

with your filtered line of thinking things through.

I didn't think much of the headlines or the news,

but I saw the way your face scrunched as if you

couldn't believe your ears—that this reality

wasn't yours, never had been, it was a lie.

You didn't want to look in the mirror

and see a bigot or a racist or a hater.

I didn't want to call you those names either,

because I looked at you with the gloss of love

and didn't think the era of your birth defined you.

But looking at you, really seeing you, I wondered,

"Do I really know him at all?"

What I wanted to believe out of everything

was that love would conquer all (trite, I know),

the good would triumph over any and all evil,

and our world would not disappoint us.

But there are disappointments every day,

especially to those of us who are hungry

or destitute or needy or suffering—

and sometimes there are no words

to account for the harm administered.

Society tells us to look the other way,

put our heads down and pray for relief,

but I look in the mirror every day and

feel so sick of my tired and helpless self.

Some days the best I can do is rail against

you and all your rampant backwater ideals

even as I know you are from a bygone time

that is still striving for a voice and a stance,

despite all the wrong that's been done.

Love is all I have to offer you these days,

because I want to believe in love that changes,

but you have to do the changing yourself

while I try to mend my broken ways and

strike out to be better and do better.

I'll get no accolades or commendations for it,

maybe I'll just be spit at in anger and spite,

but tomorrow is another day, for better or worse,

and I have to believe in the goodness we can be

even as I recognize the fallacy of what we are.

Did you enjoy this poem? There's more to find over on my profile page. You can also follow me on Twitter if you'd like to talk writing or just Vocal in general. Thank you for the support!