The Person Sitting Beside You - A Poem

The Person Sitting Beside You - A Poem

The Person Sitting Beside You - A Poem

The Person Sitting Beside You

Who is the person sitting beside you

When one place to another you must move

On a subway or bus or in a grocery store

Someone comes and sits close to you like other times before

You put up your protective shell

Like all other times as well

What are the deep feelings you feel

Take time right now and your shell you should peal

To see just how those others to you relate

Do they make you feel like some kind of bait?

Or is it you who does the judging

Without you doing the budging

You think of all the things you've been taught and you start to assume

Are they single, Muslim, Jewish, or gay and other things that may not be true?

Have we become to think and look at another

Like they were some kind of ugly creature or other

By only seeing their outside looks

Like what you have been told by that religious book

Would you be a fellow human?

And extend your hand

With a smile just for a little while or a few seconds

Come on now your soul beckons.

Do you really know if that other person,

Is it a friend or foe or just a human version,

Of an Angel that you are unaware,

Put in your path to make you more aware

Of the things you think and what you do,

To the Person sitting *inside* of you.