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.
Once a year,
They call in some
Highly-recommended,
One-dimensional expert
To run a few inane activities
Focusing on the superficial
To the exclusion of
Anything of substance,
Momentarily making them
Feel like they’ve done
Something to address
The pathologies that
Riddle their organization and
Will never deal with meaningfully.
They congratulate themselves for
Being forward-thinking.
When he heard the words,
He wondered what else he
Could possibly do
To make this type of
Treatment end.
He had worked impossibly
Hard to rewrite his biography,
Surmounting poverty and disadvantage
To become a respected
Professional.
He yearned for a day when he
Could walk down the street
Without being eyed with suspicion,
Shunned because of
His physical appearance.
One day his grandchildren
Would wake up
In a world transformed
By empathy and
Love.
Lilly is the one who
Took away her son,
Stole her most
Cherished treasure,
Left her sobbing alone
Without her beloved
First-born, her best
Friend and confidant,
The one she poured
All her dreams and
Unfulfilled aspirations into.
To make up for this
Heinous affront,
Olivia proffers strategic
Gifts to the children,
A premeditated maneuver to
Regain control.
They’ve been wondering when
It would be them and it has
Finally occurred with a
Ferocity they could not
Imagine no matter how many of
Their friends told them
About it, the leveling of
Life, limb, love, in one
Deafening, punishing blow;
A child sits in an ambulance.
Each of us can
Love more than hate,
Help one another more
Than compete, understand
Rather than become enraged,
Yet we ignore these gifts.
The only creature that
Can shape its own mind
Repeatedly dooms itself
To self-annihilation by
Not healing its
Unresolved hurts.
It remains not just a dream
To build a world where
We care for one another,
Celebrate our commonalities,
Exercise our innate ability to
Live in harmony.
Her past actions
Weighed heavily on her now
As they returned to
Torment her in ways she
Had hoped they would not but
Knew were inevitable,
An outstanding debt
For unmindful decisions
Come due and payable in
Inescapable anguish.
It all seemed to be
Going so well,
Friendly, enthusiastic interactions
Jarringly replaced by something
Very different,
Coming from a place
Not typically
Shown to strangers.
The reproaches came swiftly,
Hitting their mark as they
Always had, bruises invisible
On the outside.
You didn’t contact me,
I was so upset,
You wanted me to do everything,
I was put on the spot.
Eyes closed in resignation,
It would always be this way,
The dull insensitivity of
The unreconstructed.
