Perhaps He's a Person Just Like You | Teen Ink

Perhaps He's a Person Just Like You

January 27, 2011
By Got_Interest GOLD, Arnold, Maryland
Got_Interest GOLD, Arnold, Maryland
17 articles 8 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Box falls out of sky, man falls out of box, man eats fish custard, and look at you- you&#039;re just sitting there.&quot;<br /> -Matt Smith as The Doctor


Scruffy Tanned Man crossed the border
Scruffy Tanned Man had no quarters
Scruffy Tanned Man shouldn’t have crossed
Scruffy Tanned Man was sent to a pointless hearing
Where Well-Dressed White Men looked down on him.
Well- Dressed White Men sent Scruffy Tanned Man home
Perhaps Scruffy Tanned Man had a Daughter
Perhaps that Daughter wanted to sing, for starters
Perhaps Scruffy Tanned Man wanted food on her plate
Perhaps Scruffy Tanned Man will cross again
Perhaps he’s a person just like You.

Convicted Criminal stood
The judge had told him to stand
Convicted Criminal was given his punishment
Convicted Criminal was to die because of some stranger’s judgment
Convicted Criminal had to lie down
And let someone inject death into him
Perhaps when Convicted Criminal was a little boy,
Convicted Criminal dreamed of trains and airplanes
Perhaps his mother loved him so
Perhaps his father loved him not so
Perhaps Convicted Criminal was abused
Perhaps he’s a person just like You

Alcoholic drank too much wine.
Alcoholic drank too much beer.
Alcoholic just drank too much.
Alcoholic beat his kids
Alcoholic drove in his car
Alcoholic got in a car wreck
Alcoholic couldn’t pay the hospital bill
Alcoholic went to jail
Alcoholic couldn’t make bail
Perhaps Alcoholic was the real wreck
Perhaps Alcoholic was driving to get a support group
Perhaps Alcoholic’s wife had just died
Perhaps Alcoholic got sober and was sorry
Perhaps Sober Alcoholic really loved his kids
Perhaps he’s a person just like You

She is a girl
A very strange girl
She acts out
She acts like herself
She is teased a lot
Perhaps she cries herself to sleep
Perhaps she feels that she’s alone
Perhaps she knows what you said when she turned her back
Perhaps she has feelings, like everyone else
Perhaps she’s a person just like You
Perhaps she is the girl sitting next to You
And perhaps the person sitting next You,
Perhaps, just maybe is Me.


The author's comments:
This poem is about looking at life through another person's eyes. People tend to look at the "enemy", whomever that way be, and dehumanize them. We tend to forget that the people who do wrong in society, or act differently in society, are people. A persons a person, no matter how crazy, strange, dilusional, bad, mean they are, and thus, they should be treated that way, not like feelingless, emotionless monsters/creatures.

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