What more evidence do we need
that the whole world is all around us
including the poorest of the poor
and the richest of the comfortable rich.
I live on a hill above a shopping mall
where the richest of the rich shop,
and just up the hill from where I live
communities of Vietnamese and Lao
families who came as refugees
a few years ago cluster near other
clusters of Latinos and African Americans.

And these communities are thriving
because this land is now their land
and in a wonderful paradox it remains
just as much our land as it ever was.
The holidays and myths and religions
of these beaming new Americans
are being woven into the traditions
of those of us who have been here
waiting for our new neighbors to come
and show that there are many ways
to be fully and beautifully human.