I grew up thinking
My suburban life
Filled with liberal minds
And high-minded rhetoric
Had taught me all
I needed to know
But you cannot know
Until you have
Seen with your own eyes
Felt with your own heart
I drove a taxi in Boston
Saw hungry families
Try to pay their fares
With food stamps and sexual favors
Where racist drivers
Left people of color
Standing alone, waving arms
Only wanting a ride
To get out of the cold
I lived in rural Indiana
Saw poverty and loss of hope
Drive good-hearted people
To slowly take their own lives
Through drink and drugs
And self-destructive hate
Hate that they turned on
Whoever they saw as the other
I traveled in Paris
Saw camps of Romany
And dark-skinned immigrants
Spit upon and cursed
By those of a society
Who thought themselves
The most cultured and civilized
Of all the people of the world
I did not know
The truth of the world
Till I saw with my own eyes
Felt with my own heart
Peter Kaczmarczyk was raised in New England and has lived the last 30 years in Southern Indiana. His works are inspired by, and grounded in, his life, loves, travels, and experiences. Peter strives to create poems that are without pretense and accessible to all, and hopes that his words will resonate with those who read them. He is always surrounded by cats. He has been published in the anthology Hidden in Childhood and the Passionfruit Review. He is co-creator of the Captain Janeway Statue in Bloomington, Indiana.