The Line

 

This is the fourth post in my series, Sixty Days which I began sixty days before our presidential election. 

I thought I might take a trip down memory lane in the next few weeks, with poems, stories and blogposts I have written during the Trump Presidency.  Most of them were influenced by current events at the time, and so will serve as a reminder of what these years have been like. 

This tongue in cheek poem deals with the recurring themes of immigration and racial tensions, and whether we consider ourselves gracious hosts who welcome outsiders, or whether we are even willing to accept and include those who live in our midst, but look or act different from us.

“Differentiation” is a term commonly used in the world of special education, to describe the practice of adapting educational content to suit the varying strengths and needs of all learners.  In common parlance, the word means to distinguish and separate things into different groups.  This is the definition the speaker (who does not represent my point of view!) seems to  reference. 

Thanks for coming by to read!

 

We need to differentiate

Between the curvy and the straight;

Between the zigzag, and the line

That falters not a step behind

And never varies its inflection,

Infinite, in both directions.

 

We need to make the difference clear

Between that other place, and here.

With all those shipping to our shores—

The nation foreigners adore—

We need to keep their papers straight:

We need to differentiate.

 

We cannot let them blur the line,

The black and white, the yours and mine;

We cannot let them in, not one,

Full-knowing gain is zero-sum.

Soon no one will be left in sight

Except the ones who left the Right.

 

Though you may call it racist hate:

I beg to differentiate.

 

Copyright Andrea LeDew 2017

 

For other posts in the series, check out Sixty Days. 

For a short short story on the folly of trying to keep out invaders, read Welcoming Them.