Mrs. Johnson Refuses To Care Poem by W.I. Stoneberger

'Honey,
don't be talking like that.
All that stuff about war & hate & crime
& what it's like out there.
Why worry about it
when we're in here,
where it's safe & sane & so civilized?
You let too much get into your head
crawl up under your skin
& settle into your heart,
until it gets so heavy
you haven't got time to enjoy
the important things anymore.
They're not like us, you know,
the ones out there
the ones on the t.v. & in the papers
the ones you worry so much about.
They're different than us.
They don't feel the same things we do,
the same way we do.
Why do you spend your time,
spend your mind on them?
Do you think they care?
Do you think they're even capable
of the kind of concern we feel we express?
Don't fool yourself.
Don't go making them into something they're not.
That's another world out there.
It's not your world not our world,
that place out there.
That's their world.
They wouldn't be there if they didn't want to be.
It's not like they don't have any other choice.
If they didn't want to be there, they wouldn't be.
Look at us. We're where we want to be.
We've made our choices. And they've made theirs.
That's just the way it is.
It's not really even worth thinking about talking about,
Honey. '