The brutal treatment and killing of the handcuffed George Floyd has set off protests and destructive riots in cities across the country.  Would not an understanding of our shared humanness have caused us to pause and take to heart the words in this poem.

UNDER THE SKIN
Mary Spain*

Come, meet me in the dark with outstretched hands
I would not know your colour or your kind;
And do not speak, in case my biased mind
Forms judgement long before it understands
The words you use.  Conceal from me the lands
You've travelled through, the culture that's entwined
In all your thoughts, the politics you find
Acceptable, the ground where your faith stands.
If I could come as nakedly as you,
Abandoning my way of life and creed,
Forgetting those ideas I'm closest to
And recognizing what I really need;
Could we, for just a moment, see right through
Our diverse layers to our common seed?

*With kind permission
from the author
Between The Lines
published 1983
Great Britain