It was never going to
Go her way.
An abrupt,
Blunt realization.
It seemed so simple:
Feel for someone else.
No empathy forthcoming,
Just coldness.
Discarded when no longer
Feeding the pathology.
Rejected, unneeded,
Wondrous opportunities appear.
He comes from
Generational pain,
The kind that anchors
People to self-perceived
Stations, preventing
Forward movement,
Repeating the patterns
That keep them there.
He says he doesn’t
Have the answers
To fix all the problems
But he knows something
Needs to be done to
Alleviate the suffering,
But one gets the impression
He really doesn’t understand
Why the horrors persist and
Where change really comes from,
Personal experience being
At times a poor substitute
For genuine insight, compassion.
People who don’t
Believe in
Helping people,
Put in charge of programs
That are supposed
To help people.
So utterly soaked in
His belief system,
He is unable to see
Anything other than what
He’s been told to,
An adherent doing
What’s asked of him,
Not really liking it
But unable to change course,
Complete obedience the
Only approved choice,
Openness and curiosity
Not even on the menu,
He can barely even remember
What it was like to
Be himself, and change
No longer calls.
He remembers when his
Father would take him
Downtown to see all the
Amazing buildings,
Visit their favorite museums,
Revel in the energy and
Bustle of the city,
Occasionally passing some
Tattered person huddled
Under boxes and newspapers,
His father impassively
Remarking that those people
Were somehow inferior.
All the things
He thought he was
Turned out to be
Errors planted there by
Other people,
Sometimes well-meaning,
But who had no idea
What it means to
Be courageous,
Follow one’s own path in life,
Free from the herd.
For much of her life,
She believed that
Her worth came from
What other people
Thought of her,
Constantly looking
For approval from
Sources ill-equipped
To provide it,
Hating herself when
The right words
Didn’t come.
There is always
Some individual
Who is more callous
Than others,
And is willing to
Maim and kill
To solely meet his own needs,
Who will not weep
At the end of the day
When the horror of
The slaughter is evident,
And who, in spite of the spoils,
Will live an utterly miserable life.
Reducing human beings
To categories and fates,
A lamentable history of
Imposed disparity,
Lapse of humanity.
