They built their house on the other side of the fence.
The far end of the bay.
To stay away.
Others aren’t like us, they’d say.
We’re better.
People don’t understand that
They’re nothing like us.
They built their house on the other side
Of the fence.
Taught their kids to hate
The Others
For not being
Like them.
For being
Less worthy.
Less than.
They build their house on the other side of
The fence.
The town gawked
First
Then shrugged
Then came to believe
That indeed
They were different,
Even dangerous
On the other side of
The fence.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Photo prompt © Rowena Curtin
Na'ama Yehuda 
This resonates with me. I’ve often been an “other side of the fence” person, not following along with the crowd. Has its ups and downs 🙂
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It does. And the myth of superiority – of anyone, over anyone – often leads to an amplification of separation, and wrongs.
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This is so damn powerful, Na’ama! Because tell me that this is not true. Hate is taught. Sigh. Hugs to you, my friend. I hope your family is safe.
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Hate is certainly taught. And reinforced. And used for power by some who have not the least concern for human lives, and only lust to amplify hate and division as means to maintain control through pain. It is incomprehensible to me. And yet it often starts with fences. Psychological and physical, that make it as if those on either side are somehow different in some essential way that leaves them inherently incompatible. It is bizarre to me. Because I look and look and I can’t tell one child from another.
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You are so right. It often (most times, I should think) starts with fences of all sorts. I’ll never understand such hate.
I remember watching Chicago PD and one of the story lines was about how a grandfather (one of those white supremacists) trained his grandson to hate, no matter how much his daughter tried to stop him (she was terrified of him). When his grandfather gets shot, the look of hate he gives the black cop gave me shivers (kid dd a good job acting, tell you what!)
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Yes and ugh ugh ugh … Some people use hate as fuel. It is so incomprehensible to me. Perhaps because the thing that fuels me most (and I believe you, too) is love.
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Big time UGH.
Yes, I agree. We are definitely in agreement on this one.
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Well said. I especially like the phrase ‘even dangerous’. Says it all. The townsfolk are right there, I suspect.
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Perhaps they are dangerous. Or, perhaps, it is the ‘stranger danger’ sense of the ‘other’ that people develop toward those who may treat them with a side-eye. Either way, it does not feel like a comfortable situation all around …
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So sad.
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Yes, the ‘othering’ of people always makes me sad. Thank you for the comment, Sadje!
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You’re welcome
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Na’ama Y’karah,
Children come into the world with a blank slate. So sad that many are taught from the cradle to hate. My heart is breaking. Your piece tells the story so very well.
Shabbat Shalom (and may it be in the truest sense) my friend,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle. The suffering that hate brings is one of the biggest sorrows to me, because that suffering is preventable. There is plenty in the world to bring suffering, without humans inflicting it on each other in the name of hate. I cannot abide it. Oy. Hugs from a weeping sky NYC.
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Wow. Such an excellent poem, Na’ama.
What is it about our human nature? I am so glad that we are not all the same.
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Thank you, Bill. I don’t know. I wouldn’t want us all to be the same, either. And I don’t find our differences to be a bad thing, but a good one.
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Very powerful and so true. We seem to need, as a species, to find others not only different but less than ourselves, and then the hatred seeps in – on both sides of the fence.
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Well said. Exactly. How sad.
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Isn’t it interesting that each side is thinking the same thing. Makes me think of the Pink Floyd song, “Us and Them.”
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Indeed! When we ‘other’ another, they may ‘other’ us …
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