Humanist Voices in Verse: The Human Trinity

This week’s poem is by Mario Dante Bartoletti, a retired psychologist from Georgia who is currently writing his memoirs.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to write@thehumanist.com with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

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The Human Trinity

He, an old white man,
She, a young black woman,
Together, side-by-side;
The human trinity.

They, the three dimensions,
Demarcations, ramifications,
Of the human family;
Age, race, gender.

A trinity, precious and finite,
But within the bounds, differences;
Differences infinitely varied,
Yet infinitely significant.

Why then intolerances,
Disparaging behaviors,
Hostile confrontations
Tearing at the human trinity?

Life means differences,
No two exactly alike,
Divers forms and ways of thought;
This is the existential fact.

Yet, we relegate to differences,
Relevance and negative concerns,
Which inherently do not exist;
Differences are the natural order.

Like seeks like, some say,
Imposing stasis and equivalence,
Though in life illusory;
Why then does it impress?

Why render importance
To ephemeral similarity,
Rather than acknowledge and value,
The reality of human variation?

Disparaging diversity, and
Rich variety in humanity,
We impose one false faith on another;
Truly a fool’s errand!

Difference, the unity of humanity.
A lesson we have yet to learn,
A value we have yet to achieve,
A peace we have yet to create;
The Human Trinity