Poetry

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Too Close for Comfort
By Cynthia Legette Davis

Many of us spend our entire lives
keeping people at arms length.
Don't let them get too close.
They might hurt you," we tell ourselves.
"They might disappoint you.
They might see the truth about you."
How misguided we are, especially when what most of us
really want so much is for others to see the truth—
the real truth about us.
Instead, all they know about us—
all we show them is the mask we wear.
Or is that all?
Maybe they really can see the goodness in us
despite our efforts to keep our distance.
Our goodness is our real truth,
and maybe they've seen it all along.

-Excerpted from the book,Peace Be Still: Inner Healing for Racial Harmony

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