Under the same Abrahamic rite
Why is it one tribe must shoulder blame
For all the ills our tongues in spite
May mutter, hiss, jibe, joke, proclaim
Can all those bearing guiding star
And shunned as less than fully hale
In truth be held as such they are
Accountable by any scale
From other creeds and careful groups
And once again, ill fated, mean
Cast out as ‘other’… Story loops
Unfit to mingle, foul, unclean
How are we in point of fact
In any way so different
When we all, with lesser tact
Live and die with base intent
Dogma and self-interest
Returning fellows to their clay
Here with darkness in our breast
We’ll charge along this alleyway
Now ignorance and cruelty
False, Godless words have spat to shine
We in our turn may twist and see
Of those whose creed does not match mine
Our own ideals overturned
With harsh contempt, disowned, decried
And know ourselves as those who earned
The scaffold built when first we lied
And chose to follow to this end
The unrefined, archaic lore
Hanging decisions on the bend
Of what worked once some years before
To weigh as wanting one who had
An equal claim to all the Earth
As we ourselves who in our greed
Conspired to steal more than our worth
Katherine Shirley 