Speck of a Difference

A step away I took from the crowd,

Thoughts transported miles in mental distance;

City Squares, streets, mall entrances and huge corporate edifices.

I paused, more to see than to look

At men and women, participants, as selves or groups

In what honest folks call Life.

A step further away I took from the crowd,

It, now magnified by thoughts that swung like pendulum

From distant sub-conscious to physical here, and back;

Black and white, brown and yellow, I saw,

All folks, common moods and attires in full breach of

Skins and cultures I once thought were barriers.

Now a step close to the crowd

I began to find glee in what I saw;

For the more I poked a wedge between them

The more I knew it was out of place

In a milieu where the Whole prided reality,

Split up in rainbow colors; a passing diversity.

Emboldened, I hazarded closer proximity to the crowd.

I now experience a discovery, there isn’t much difference

Between participants, together they put in more hours than few,

And do same acts and perform same chores,

Apart or together, in more areas than few,

In streets and malls, in churches, mosques, or temples and synagogs.

I now see what Nationalists have always wanted in our crowd.

To make a mountain out of the speck of differences,

Unmindful that even oceans are one and all rivers, holy or not,

Flow into same waters under which live varied species of marine life.

Now that we know we are one in more ways than few

Let us choose, as we will, the means and methods to protect our souls after death.

Khwaja Massoud