Thin Blue Line

a short verse written 17 July 2023

I heard a monk say
he wanted to be a cop
to hold a gun
to be violent.

There is no
	thin blue line. 

Only people here
And people there
And they disagree
And that’s okay.

For the most part.

But thank heavens
for monks who become
monks instead of cops.

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Author’s Note — I wrote this poem after listening to an excellent podcast called The Way Out Is In, hosted by two students of Plum Village. Listening to one of the host’s stories of his younger ambitions led me to the piece above. I think it’s a shame that we allow the roles we take in our society to define our identities, that we let these identities define our perceptions, that we let these perceptions define our thoughts. We are not our thoughts or actions; rather, we are a continuous state of becoming our thoughts and actions. There is no Self, only iterations which come from the eternal dichotomy of thought and introspection & action and reaction. This is worth consideration. Thank you for reading.