One swallow does not a summer make,

Nor one race or caste a nation;

And no nation, however exceptional,

Tantamounts to creation.

 

What cruelties we perpetrate

To make one size fit all,

When various are our expressions,

And multifarious Nature’s call.

 

Think what calamity would ensue

If birds were just one bird,

And flowers all of a single hue,

And all humans just a herd.

 

God gave us variety,

We seek a domination

Of  the syllables that fell to us

As universal conversation,

 

The bird that sings a different tune,

And wears a different plume

We see as threat to our clime,–

An estrangement and doom.

 

The brain, one thought, would evolve

To embrace abundance;

Alas our blinkers are fortified

The more we advance.

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