Prejudice

Preconceived notions surrounded me

Ways different from mine confounded me

I had developed tunnel vision

In rigid ideas I was imprisoned

Where did these ideas originate?

What did this narrow-mindedness precipitate?

When I dwell on these fixations of mine

No logical explanation behind them I find..

I think from my family did I inherit

These prejudiced notions without any merit

Never doubted the dictums passed down to me

Accepted them as gospel truths unquestioningly.

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As I travel through life’s meandering pathways

Old assumptions are shattered in different ways

I should be vigilant and keep in restraint

The tendency of my mind to taint

My experiences with sprinkles of prejudice-

Such is the conditioned mind’s artifice…

Above all, I shall try my best

To hold my tongue and not express

Before my children such notions

Let them face the world with a mind open.