On the other hand

It happened again. Going North on my bicycle I passed two pedestrians going South and overhead one say "On the other hand it makes me not want to say anything." What silenced her? Was it a sharp rebuke, a comment received on social media, stage fright?

From my perspective it could be a continuation of the snippet I wrote about yesterday,
I understand.
On the other hand
...

Is this how poems come to people? Probably not but I will have my ears open tomorrow for the next line.

These days, I don't think that people say "On the other hand" enough. It implies a willingness to look at things from another's perspective, something which isn't practiced enough in our politically divided country. I find it hard to believe that Trump has ever uttered those words. He probably considers them to be a sign of weakness.

Comments

  1. gillian brownFebruary 9, 2022 at 8:14 AM

    from a chance common utterance to the world--in its current fraught iteration.

    ReplyDelete

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