How the Rain Falls

Why do we hate?
Why do the children of today
have to know what it is to discriminate?
Why do they even have to know the meanings
of the words bigotry and race?
Why is it a race
to the top
without a second look, a second thought
of the people we have stepped on
the lives we have crushed.

Why do I deserve to know hate?
Why do the words shoot, terrorize, and bully
make so much sense
while love, honor, and cherish
seem like the lines
of a long forgotten song.

Look in their eyes!

the eight year old at recess
the eighteen year old in college;
they have seen violence


the twenty-five year old at a new job
the eighty-five year old enjoying retirement
they have felt the swift blows of judgement

Judgement, unlike understanding
falls down like rain.