DIGNITY

Each time you stop on the street
And speak to another person,
Who has been deemed “below”
Or “less than” by the general
Culture, you’ve resisted racism,
You’ve squelched sexism,
You have hamstrung heterosexism,
You have adjudicated adultism,
You’ve ass-kicked ableism,
You’ve inhibited every sort of
“ism” in the world

You’ve stepped one step closer to
Being a Bodhisattva, you are one
Inch closer to heaven,
Helping resurrect person by person
The prism of a new world
You are that universe
Including all the universes
In the Universe

© Christopher Bear Beam, MA
May, 2009