I am regarded as odd
Because I don’t think like other people,
Quite.
“He’s a little queer”,
Or, “His sense of values is twisted”,
Because I’d rather have a poem,
Or a bed of Iris,
Or watch a sunset or the stars
Than to shoot pool,
Or kill rabbits,
Or run wild with loose women,
Or other he-man things like that.
Why–I don’t even smoke or drink
Or swear much! Isn’t it awful?
But why, after all, should I make me over to be like you,
Even if you DO represent the majority?
Once, a majority of people voted for the 18th Amendment:
I’m pretty sure YOU think that majority was wrong?
So don’t try to change me over to your way
Of thinking.
I have no intention of changing you over to mine,
Except that I do believe
You might Just change enough to tolerate me
Since I have to put up with youl
Life is the state of being individual;
Without that quality, ARE we alive?
The dead have a long time to get used to each other.
The dead all think alike.
by Ray Romine Wednesday, June 27, 1945
