Learning To Deal With Us As Though We Were Machines Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

learning to deal with us as though we were machines
takes many years of study, so it seems.
it helps to have a background in the sciences.

learning to throw us over the cliffs
while simulating friendship, home and hearth
whatever we could imagine as the safest place to be

takes much finesse. don't bring a clipboard, smile.
ask personal questions.
whole schools exist and just for this
though they cry: under funded.

we are the underserved at best,
the students who think for ourselves
a little distressed. but they'll fix that, won't they?

they mimic kindness
calling us this.
we, who used to have our own names

before we came here.

mary angela douglas 31 january 2015