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]