Far Apart

us
all
together.
that is how
it once was. we
were gloriously different,
created that way, but that didn’t
bother us in the least because our
differences made us stronger. we talked
with each other, face to face. we listened to
each other, we learned from each other, we
were together and it was all very good. it was
exactly how it was supposed to be.

and then one day,
someone said, hey, you don’t look like me,
I’m the good one, you’re the bad one. and someone
else said, hey, you don’t think like I do. your story is not
my story, your god is not my god. I’m right, you’re wrong.
and when that started to happen, we began letting our
differences become barriers instead of bridges. so we learned
to be afraid of what we didn’t understand. and then someone posted
something on social media we didn’t like, and it made us angry. so
we shot back in the comments, because it’s always easier to do that
than have a reasonable conversation face-to-face. and we became more
afraid. and then one day we elected our fears, and it got harder and harder
to see all we had in common since they seemed intent on making the divides
greater.  and the divides have grown to the point where we react instead of reason,
where we see the worst in each other instead of the best, where we define ourselves
by who we are not instead of who we are. and in our better moments we try, we really
try to listen to each other because we know this is not who we were created to be, but honestly
it is so incredibly hard to actually hear what anyone says anymore because we are so very
far                                                                                                                                                     apart.