Terrible People

Terrible people are people, not monsters.
People, like us,
with the value
of people.
All that divides us
this frail understanding
that people
are people.
Poor people, black people, gay people, sick people,
multicultural intersectional people,
are people
and people with no taste, and no education,
Godfearing people, people who voted for Trump,
are people
and people who shoot, who set bombs, and who stab
and people who drive hard fast cars into soft slow people
are people
terrible people, but people,
not monsters, unpeople,
not other, not strangers,
not safe in their cages
not savages, targets, or animals,
people.
We can do these things, do these things,
do them to people,
kill people with guns
and with cruel legislation
and still we’re all people.
You can make me afraid, you can kill me,
you can let me lead my comfortable life
while you threaten my friends,
but you can’t stop me seeing
that all of us, you and I,
always and only
are people,
all people
valuable, capable, terrible people.