because I’ve known rejection
I identify with those cast out
hated for simply being
scorned for expressing doubts
the impulse to exclude
comes from projected fear
what we do to them, they might do to us
if we let them linger near
the rage and mortal terror
distorts the scheming mind
you become a professional victim
even while victimizing your own kind
the stranger, the unique, the alien
my attention perks right up
these others signal something
and I drink the offered cup
I seek the foreign shore
and the solitude of silence
watch me wander wakeful
despite the despair of American violence.