Traveler 5 (The Witness)

Your Voice Matters
Ringing in eager ears
Incredulity wracks my brain
Please let this be the moment
The revolution will be televised
Tweeted, shared, snapped, and chatted
We stumble through teargas and bullets
Make excuses, point fingers, absolve ourselves
“It wasn’t me”
They look like me
“Not all of us”
I don’t do that
But it’s on me
They are your lives we abuse
We are blind to how we use them
To make ourselves feel so much better
Blinder still to how we share the world
I don’t pray
I act
I beg
I plead
I stand
I walk
I protest
I cry
I am beside you
Today I was given the greatest gift
My hands were busy
Trying to stop the cancer
My experience was changed
We can make this happen
We will do well in this world
Here traveler, come see the news
Sacrificial
Humane
Now traveler, what will break you?
Despondency
Disdain
Go traveler, it is there, too…
Relegated
The same
[Author’s note: written while observing the American riots and protests during travels between Reykjavik, Iceland and Paris, France; notably completed at Le Dôme, Montparnasse during lunch]