"This is my House" - Poem Analysis

This is My House by Richard MacWilliam

This is my house, and you are a guest in it.
Please - leave when you are no longer welcome .......
I will have no hesitation in using force -
Beneath my smile lies
Fear
And
Hate.


This is my house: it needs rebuilding -
I value you
For your skills:
But without those skills
You
Are
Nothing.


This is my house: you are not welcome,
Yet my morality insists that you stay -
But
Only
One
At
A
Time.


This is my house: we are friends,
And you can stay forever -
But only because
We
Are
Friends.


This is my house: we are brother and sister.
You are most welcome.
Live here and join our family.
We will argue: we will love: but most of all
We
Will
Live.


This is my house. Next door is another house.
I have been in that other house.
That other house is part of my street.
It is a nice house.
I
Like
My
Street.


In this poem, each stanza represents a different group of people: the first only wants his guest (like the immigrant) until he, the owner, wishes him to leave and the last accepting of everyone and every house around him. The poem starts with the most discriminative person and ends with the most open person, similar to the path America is taking right now. The author does not make a statement that points out where we are now, but he does suggest that instead of allowing people to enter the U.S. just because of what jobs they are capable of performing, they should be accepted for how good they are overall because help keep us diversified and more accepting of others.