The Others

By Keith Holyoak

“Let me be clear—they also love their children

In their fashion, love their country too,

Whichever one they came from. But the question

Now is, can they tell us what to do?

And would you want one in your family?

Maybe the best are harmless, still they’re not

The same as us, could never hope to be—

What we have by birthright can’t be bought.”

I don’t suppose they care we overheard.

Better to catch the naked truth than wonder

What did they mean by that whispered code word?

We’ve been down, but won’t be going under—

A stronger truth was taught us by our mothers,

You’re worth as much as any of the others!

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Keith Holyoak, raised on a dairy farm in British Columbia, is now a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His most recent book of poems is Oracle Bones: Poems from the Time of Misrule (Goldfish Press, 2019). He combined his interests in psychology and poetry to write The Spider’s Thread: Metaphor in Mind, Brain, and Poetry (MIT Press, 2019).