They

They
By Larry Linville

“They are all just a bunch of drunks,” he said,
about the folks in the poor side of town.
“I pick up their garbage and I should know”
As he put every resident down.

A young man served a church for those fine folks.
He preached to them and sat with them to pray.
He often ate at their kitchen tables
and he was angered to hear them called “they.”

He said to the man, “there’s a difference, sir,
Between what I have seen and what you say.
I see them as Adolph and George and Frank,
and you, my friend, simply see them as they.”

It was silent in the mayor’s office
and the garbage man turned and bowed his head.
The mayor rejected his proposal
and accepted the young pastor’s instead.