Why Not Poem by Troy Nichols

Why not be like the blind man
Who does not ever see
Who cannot judge someone for how they look
But for only how they act
Why not be like the deaf man
Who cannot hear anger or pain
Who only feels how he feels
And no voice can change his way
Why not be like the mute
Who cannot ever talk
Who cannot spit fire from his maw
And hurt with words like knives.
Why not be like them and choose to understand.
And tolerate everyone in any foreign land
No matter what they speak or what they feel of man.