A place that
Was once safe is
No longer.
Sometimes things
Change in
Unfortunate ways.
Some people
Grow,
Others don’t.
You can’t
Have peace
As long as
One or more
Parties don’t
Believe in it,
Or have something
To gain from
Its obstruction.
Power warps the ordinary
Human mind to such a degree that
It’s rare to find someone who
Ascends to great heights
Yet remains able to feel
The suffering of millions
Who desperately need help,
A compassionate radical who
Understands their plight and
Possesses the courage to
Help level the playing field.
It’s easy to enjoy the trappings
Of privilege, quite another to
Use your position to make the
World a better place.
He’s furious about
The customer service agent
With an accent but
Not at all concerned about
Ravenous corporations
Taking advantage of human beings
In impoverished countries,
Paying them a pittance.
It’s not so difficult
For people to come together
In a spirit of
Collaboration and peace,
It just requires that we
Put aside the need to
Feel superior to some other
Person or group,
Label them as other so
We can push them aside,
Project our inner wounds on them,
Take advantage of them
For personal gain.
Getting along with others
Is possible, countless people
Co-exist in harmony every day,
We’re wired to be social,
Now all we need to do is
Heal the individuals who
Promote the mistaken notion
That we’re somehow different
From one another and always
Have to be in conflict.
He always has a
False narrative
Playing in his head,
Protecting him from reality,
Shielding him from
The things he’d rather not look at,
And who he’s become.
A strange bunch of
Confounded creatures we are,
Thinking only of our own needs,
Killing to amass more and
More meaningless stuff,
Smearing our inner
Hurts on each other,
Coalescing into tribes
Of beings who are just
As broken as we are.
How to solve all the
World’s problems:
Provide mental health
Services for everyone,
Starting in childhood and
Continuing regularly
Throughout adulthood,
In order to help people heal
So they are able to
Love themselves and others.
Some people
Suffer as children
And become adults
Who inflict the same
Pain on others.
Some people
Suffer as children
And become adults
Who alleviate
Others’ pain.
She’ll never wake up and
Wonder why she hurt
So many people,
A mechanism acquired from
Broken adults who never learned
How to be nice to others and
Passed it on to the
Next generation just as
Had been done to them,
Perpetuating reprehensible
Behavior labeled normal.
