Future Diverse - Edit

[dukealien]

edit1;

Future Diverse


People like to live among
others who are like themselves:
it’s a fact of human nature,
for security we need this
just to know what’s happening.
But we’re told diversity—
living deep-embedded, mixed
with people quite unlike ourselves—
forms our proper destiny.
Can that be, when our new neighbors
also want to live with only
others like themselves, for they
too are human, with that nature?
In this vision of elite
diversity our betters rattle,
must we live as hated strangers
in their strange land or enjoy -
if we can - the life of tourists?

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@Todd - Thanks for the very constructive criticism.  I played whack-a-mole with line endings until I sort of gave up and just tried to enforce manageable line lengths with mostly complete thoughts and starting on a stressed syllable.  I've incorporated your suggestions, more or less, toward the top while (mostly) maintaining the stresses where they were.

Concerning elite/diversity, now *I* see (again?) why I did that, too.  It puts the critical words at the focus points (line end and beginning), and after several tries I haven't found a revision with that advantage which also more or less keeps complete thoughts to lines.  It's probably there, I just haven't found it yet.

I keep playing with the last line - "the fate of tourists," perhaps?

I'm pretty sure Heinlein was quoting someone else with that "Stranger in a Strange Land" title, but haven't researched it.

edit:  Yes, it's from the KJV Bible (Exodus), of course.