The Outsider

Carole Stolz

Include means two, a Me and a You.

There’s so much to do and yet so few

who care for the foreigner the one outside!

Condemned to poverty as yet un-tried.

No money and lonely, no status, not free

Yet no worse a person than a you or a me.

His crime? His birth in a different land

No fault of his own or another’s hand.

His sin? That his speech is a rhythm unknown

and not that of the landsmen of his new „home“.

Even his skin has a different hue –

his habits, traditions are all different to you.

So how much longer will we hold him restrained?

Is it not enough that he came to us pained?

What is then of mercy, forgiveness and love?

Why do we judge harsher than our Lord God above?

Then rise from your slumber and join in the fight.

Stand up and cry out for that which is right.

If you call yourself good or benevolent or kind

Then shake off the indifference that’s rendering you blind.