Fearless Reason

I feel a pull
inward
to become an exile.

To withdraw
from a public
that has become
sacrilege to my private values.

I am bewildered
that the worst in us
has become commonplace.

I am a foreigner
in my land
a place
where hate is more desirable than love
fear more tolerable than acceptance
and ignorance more comfort than truth.

I do not know these neighbors and friends
that I once assumed shared a common decency.

A decency now uncommon
as the worst in us
becomes middling.

I have become
a stranger
in  a strange land
that has lost the capacity
for self-preservation.