Don’t look at me
As though I am an alien
or a stranger,
Don’t let the dagger of
antipathy
Fly out of your eyes.
I am your neighbor.
Don’t call me a foe, an
antagonist or a rival,
Don’t roll up your mistrustful sleeves for a fight.
I am your friend.
Don’t hold this murderous weapon in your kind hand,
Don’t deny me the right to work, to eat, or to live.
I am your brother.
If destiny willed me to be born
On this side of the frontier line,
If my parents wished me
To wear these clothes
And taught me their own dances,
Do we have to be adversaries?
If fate desired me to speak
This tongue foreign to you
And our skins’ color to differ,
Do we have to be competitors?
If necessity decided for us
To live in this country,
In the North, South,
East, or West,
Do we have to be opponents?
If I believe in Jesus,
Jehovah,
Krishna,
Buddha,
Brahma
Or Allah,
If this is my philosophy,
My tradition,
My history
And my culture,
Do we have to be enemies?
No! A million times: no!
Please, look at me with
new eyes
And throw away your
injurious prejudices.
What do you see but a
person like you
Who wants, desires and hopes for the same things in life:
Well-being,
Happiness,
A home,
Family,
Some friends,
Some love?
Look:
I walk,
I talk,
I eat,
I sleep,
I dream,
I laugh and I cry.
Just like you.
I’m born,
I grow up,
I learn,
I suffer,
I bleed
And I die.
Just like you.
I’m a father,
A mother,
A brother,
A sister,
A son,
And a daughter.
Just like you.
You see: we are alike.
We are the same.
We are brothers.
Listen to me my neighbor, my friend, and my ally:
I am telling you the truth.
We are the victims of schemes,
Well planned in advance
By deceitful evil-hearted men
Who wished for our
destruction.
They, masters of savage forgery, dividers of mankind
Have tricked us
throughout history
With well-orchestrated lies
And with treacherous stories.
These intellectually
impotent criminals
Have instilled poison in
your heart and mine.
Thus, by cultivating hatred, bitterness and rage,
They managed to shape us to ruthless foes,
To merciless enemies,
To cruel animals.
Please, listen to me! It is true. We are brothers.
Let us therefore with irresistible will cross all frontier lines
That the past has
erected between us,
Thus making divisions vanish.
Let us with supreme power break the bonds of history,
Religion and culture and run into each other’s arms.
Let us uproot from our
tormented hearts
thorny mistrust
That was planted there
thousands of years ago.
Let us seize ammunition from destructive hatred,
And make war capitulate.
Let us sink the cholera
of bitterness
In the affectionate sea
of universal accord.
And finally,
Let us unite and march
to higher claims,
To incomparable glory
Where peace can blossom today.
Thus, both of us will
go to sleep at last,
Fearless of each other tonight.
Copyright © Demetrios Trifiatis
We Are Brothers II is a poem written by Demetrios Trifiatis, PhD in philosophy, that can be found in the book “An Aegean Breeze of Peace,” which Demetrios co-authored with professor of German studies at Pennsylvania State University Hulya N Yilmaz. It’s published by Inner Child Press and also available on Amazon.
