.
Separation
It is hard to find you.
The sky is collapsing.
I want to warn you.
But, you can’t hear me —
because, the world
has already collapsed on you three times last week.
When I travel to meet you,
I cannot find your road.
When you travel to meet me,
there are men with masks
who steal you away.
Or, maybe, the men in masks
are not there this time.
Yet, the difference in our economies
makes it hard for you to buy food.
It is hard to find you.
They want us to be separate.
They teach you to understand the world
with art and song.
They teach myself and my children
to write careful texts.
When we try to speak with each other we fail.
It is hard to find you.
So much about us is different,
for good or bad, for better or worse,
but nurtured — the difference is nurtured
by those who aspire to keep us separate.
If we ever find each other, we will be safe.
I will look for you by a clear river.
I will look for you at a kind temple.
They cannot keep us apart forever.
When we meet, tears of joy
will cascade over us like a clear river.
When we meet, we will scare them away,
or, teach them to belong.
______________________________________
By Kimberly Wilder
June 2026
Filed under: poetry Tagged: | communication problems, community organizing, poems about communication, poems about diversity, poems about organizing, poems about personal conflict, poems about tribalism, struggles with diversity, trials of diversity
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