Outwitted
by Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
When I was a child, my mother taught me this poem. I’ve remembered it ever since, and drawn on it when I felt excluded. It suits this moment: people wrapped in circles, separate and overlapping.
With not much else to go on, it’s my guiding principle now.