Look I

When we look
At a person what
Do we see? Gender
Race ethnicity body
Type or face or do we
Check their body language
For any threat or openness or
Do we wait to decide until we
Hear what they have to say?
I think we are hardwired to
React to our unconscious
Prejudices before our
Conscious ones.
We are only
A very few
Millennia
Away
From our
Savage past
A million-plus years
When such decisions
Meant life or death
Rather than a
Social faux
Pas or a
Charge
Of political
Incorrectness.
If you think you
Are free of your hind
Brain’s influence then
You have a surprise
Coming both in the
Conduct of others
And of yourself
As you wend
Your way to
Self-awareness.
Ask not for whom
The bell tolls,
It tolls for
Thee.