He will always
Tell you exactly
What he thinks,
Regardless of whether
It is of any interest
To anyone but him,
Or destroys you at
Your very core;
He’ll just say it and
Go about his business
As if nothing happened.
After all these years
My heart still races
When I see you somewhere.
A shared smile,
A silly joke.
You and me.
Perplexing divergence,
One person sees
Opportunities to help,
Another relishes
Occasions to punish.
Disparate perspectives –
Vastly different outcomes,
Community or aristocracy,
Consequences radiating from
Personal preference.
Constant tension between
Dissimilar perspectives,
The pendulum swings
Too far in one direction,
People suffer needlessly.
A complete lack of empathy.
A wall that has no end,
Too high to climb over,
Obscures the landscape,
Separates people who
Might have been friends,
Prevents understanding,
Love, humanity.
A weak person’s
Pathetic swagger
To hide insecurity.
A damaged person
Inflicting his pain
On everyone else.
A small person
Doing small things
For small reasons.
As we’ve seen time and again,
Despots are not content with
Merely having all the
Riches and power.
It is not enough to
Control everything and
Everyone all the time
Without resistance.
Their inner neuroses
Demand further action,
Complete eradication of
Contemptible foes.
It’s always the same story:
Use language to denigrate and
Dehumanize their opponents,
Label them vermin.
Even regular, upstanding,
Normally kind people will
Eventually believe something
If it’s repeated enough.
A populace becomes convinced
That the enemy needs to be
Vanquished at any cost and
With extreme prejudice.
Not knowing
What to do next but
Forging forth
Without hesitation,
Leaving space for
Anything that might
Come along,
Welcoming everything,
No arbitrary constraints,
All things possible.
Living a hardscrabble existence
Regardless of wealth,
Perceiving the world
As infinitely dangerous.
Nothing will change his mind,
A worldview burned into
His being, inseparable from
Self-image, identity.
Violence, darkness,
Gaping, weeping wounds,
Debilitating fear,
Disheartenment.
Problems are unsolvable
If one can’t envision people
Working together to find a solution.
Kindness is impossible if one
Can’t fathom a world where
People are kind to one another.
Compassion is fantasy if one
Can’t care for oneself or feel
The suffering of others.
