Mutual Respect

What happened was

Not a battle shed blood

Nor a brawl educed animosity

It was a miniscule disorder

With heated discourse

Of disparate opinions

Following the voicing of

her ruffled feeling

Toward a word in a verse

And soliciting attendants’ views

Mentally unprepared

The author felt like

Been ambushed

His soul mutilated

Vehemently he roared

Like a lightning struck

Flammable woods

The controversial issue incited

Fierce debate among participants

Adversarial viewpoints expressed

Intellectual discussions rose

Before it got explosive

The leader with her wit

Placated the group

And redirected the meeting

Back to its agenda

Fervor then distracted

Furor gradually cooled

In the meanwhile

Disputants’ statements

Sipped into minds

Better understanding emerged

Reconciliation sprouted

Hurt feeling alleviated

At the end mutual respect

In spite of our differences prevailed

A Molotov cocktail turned into

A firecracker and sparkled with

Empathy tolerance and humanity

By Shih-Fang Wang

From: United States