Who are we?
Strange birds from another shore,
ancestors blown here, over land
tended by generations of first settlers,
people who knew, better than
we ever will, how to live
within conditions foreign
to most of our bloodlines.
And yet we claim our knowledge superior.
We assume wherever we go,
there we are.
Home, as we define it.
Not coarse, as we imagine
the lives of those who have
already learned to exist in its midst.
To our minds, they must know very little.
And so it is that we arrive,
over seas unfathomable
to those embarking on the journey,
seeking the promise of a new world,
employing the crudest of navigation tools.
And yes, there are stars.
Certainly shining upon us alone,
brave travelers, all.
Never mind those who have adjusted standards
to the conditions in which they find themselves.
Harsh to our urban-cushioned bodies.
Impossible to our often misinformed minds.
But no matter, we have answers
and rights, defined by a culture
thousands of miles behind
this New Land on which we now
lay claim.
If mitigation is a virtue,
then isn’t interference vice?