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The Underdog And The Stranger

sometimes we simply have to be vulnerable
to be mortal
and it happens when we extend a hand and let the other feel
that your hands are real
with blood and veins and flesh and bones
that when someone gets a sharp knife and slices your wrist
you bleed real blood
because you are not a ghost, a virtual image of somebody else,
because you are not a mannequin or wood,
or someone else appearing in another person's name

vulnerability is humanity, it happens when you walk alone and you
wear your face without a mask, a veil, a hat, a head dress,
it happens when you expose yourself
to someone and you tell him that you are lonely and you need a friend
that the weather is cold and that you need someone to be with
simply to talk without any self-interest at all

then someone laughs at you and even tells that if you keep
following him he will kick you in the ass
that there is simply no possibility of a connection between a hand to another hand
anymore

vulnerability is when you finally accept that other people are strangers too
and they do not have time for any other intrusion
for another stranger like me

vulnerability is simply letting the other person know that you have no other name except your name that you have no other reserved spare tire for
yourself except yourself

that you are yourself and that you are hurt is vulnerability
but that is not the end of it all

vulnerability is also realizing that you are finally human
and that you have learned to live with this humanity
despite the strangeness and the weakness
as others keep the wall within themselves
fortifying fences and excluding
others till the end of night
till another day
and another
night

poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Added by Poetry Lover
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