A Bad Precedent by Valerie Parente

Everybody in the present tense
says, “You set a very bad precedent,”
two polar opposite sides polarized
wanting so badly to be ostracized
and never compared to the other side
as if one could ever see themself as the bad guy
when in reality each person is the protagonist
in their own book of ethics and common sense.

But what if I told you, you share the same frustration
and picked a side out of sheer desperation?
Why can’t you see, you’re not so different after all
when it comes to the problems you want to solve?
You are more alike than you realize
and I wish everyone just realized it’s a lie
that the content of character is black and white.

Everybody points fingers to who they think sets the “bad precedent”
acting with the same exact anger, just a different side of the fence.
And the truth is your anger says less about who you oppose
and more about the system that failed you both.