Us and Them

“I would make love to one of our

whores before I
would fuck one of their
bourgeoisie.” There was a proverb,

like this: Don’t trust a         if
he becomes a         even though
he remains a       for

forty years. And the sister opposite
proverb: Don’t trust a       even
though he has been in the grave

for forty years. It was a difficult day,
a bomb had spun open
a bus, and children

had been crushed down by
a machine. Each wondered if he was born
too soon, if later would have been better, if 40

+ 40 + 40 + 40

Copyright Credit: Nomi Stone, “Us and Them” from Stranger’s Notebook. Copyright 2008 Nomi Stone. Reprinted by permission of TriQuarterly Books.
Source: Stranger’s Notebook (TriQuarterly Books, 2008)