Saddest Lines

Like Neruda,

tonight, I can write the saddest lines;

Write, for example--

Young woman, full of life,

Starting new chapter

In a place, once familiar,

Having her book,

Abruptly ended

by those

who did not know her story.

For example--

Eleven people,

on a night on the town,

whose lives

were irreparably altered

for no foreseeable reason

in the history of

unforeseeable reasons;

how,

a few good men,

charged with defending the country

where they ultimately lost their lives,

undefended;

and how,

cries of ‘enough!’

go unheeded,

like so many

unanswered prayers;

how deaf ears

and blind eyes

and closed mouths

describe

so many of us--

that if we ignore

long enough

the senselessness

going on around us,

it will go away.

But,

as commonly

as the sun rises

and sets,

innocent lives

will no longer be considered

innocent;

black lives

will continue

not to matter;

and those who should lead us,

will be passed over,

by circus clowns

and sideshow freaks

who continue to laugh at us,

while the nation burns.

© 2015 Joseph Powell