What doesn’t work is fear.
Crouched and ground into the corner
like so many boxes of broken trash
left for the taking.
The silent tears
running down dark checks.
The weighing of terror
in faces and unforgiving eyes.
What doesn’t work is passivity.
Allowing
the wrongs,
the war,
the stupidity
that permeates the thoughts and words of others
to become our new normal.
History repeating itself without awareness.
The breaking of bones
and spirits
and innocence.
The evil lurking on both sides of the street.
Ours and theirs.
Neighbor after neighbor,
turning against the other.
A new spy
born out of paranoia and blonde-eyed-media
sold to us as vigilance
and duty.
What doesn’t work is hopelessness.
Curling up in a ball and waiting to die
because the injuries have become just too severe to bear.
To no longer reach
for the sun,
the bird,
the flower,
the red balloon,
because hands can not open freely.
What doesn’t work
is to resolve to
live in the dark,
believing
it is this way,
and will always be so.
