Others

Who are they?
These others, I mean.
Who are the others,
whose lives we dare dream?

Who is the boy
counting bullets and guns?
Who is the girl
selling kisses in slums?

Who is the teacher
of doctrine most holy?
Who is the leper --
the beggar most lowly?

Where are these others?
I watch as I tread.
Where are their mothers,
their lovers, their dead?

Now they surround me
-- daughter, brother and wife --
in all nations and cities
all touching my life.

We are all others
to somebody else.
We choose how to act
to be true to ourselves.