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Same Location, Different Worlds
The wife sits in the kitchen sipping coffee
as she skims the newspaper pages.
The usual stories are there to see –
in the poor district gang warfare rages.
A teenage gang member was arrested
for murder during a drive-by shooting,
revenge for an earlier shooting. He protested
that he is innocent, all charges disputing.
Police report that he is a hardened criminal,
long living a life of violence and drug dealing.
Being born to a crackhead mother was seminal –
neglected, a dropout, soon finding gangs appealing.
The Society section was filled with picture
after picture of debutantes in evening gowns
with tuxedoed escorts at the country club, sure
of bright futures, coming from the right part of town.
The comics read, the wife goes to the den,
where her husband watches Animal Planet on TV.
The show documents life during the rainy season, when
on the African plain, times are as good as they can be.
The lions lie in shade, satiated, satisfied, quite carefree.
The herbivore herds, their life cruel and hard, constantly swirl
with activity. The narrator intones “It is obvious for all to see,
occupying the same environment, they live in different worlds.”
The wife “Sure wish I could help all those poor antelope and gazelle.”
The husband “Oh, save your pity. They’re not humans, pray tell.”
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Harry Edward Gilleland 11.10.02 printer friendly
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