14
April 12, 2008
I see them
starving
eyes
diseased
eyes
abandoned
eyes
eyes glazed
hollow
from
complete
lack
of human
contact
bruised
with
the violence
of
abject
loneliness
devoid
affection
no vestige
of
saving
hope
instead
cruel
neglect
burning
Infection
a vessel
of flies
dysentery
and
soured bile
caked
in filth
and
fecal waste
not yet
arrived
at the age
of reason
yet
so far beyond
anything
remotely
of reason
of sanity
reduced
to
something
less than
human
below
the dignity
of
chatteled
livestock
and for certain
less
valued
less
cared for
un-mourned
yet
so human
are they
it aches
to
look upon them
they
are a blight
a blight
on my
indifferent
soul
an abomination
my
abomination
my
condemnation
a stain
indelible
in my
heart
a mark
of
injustice
so
horrific
that
I am forced
to look away
they are my
denial
my
greatest fear
they
are
my sin
the sorrow
that
chokes
my spirit
wrings
from me
tears
of the
privileged
the glutted
the
guilty
they
are my
deep
unrest
my failure
my great
discomfort
my
interruption
and so
I reach out
I reach out
to
take control
to
make a change
and
by remote
remove
these
images
that
confront me
that
haunt me
taunt me
to
surf away
into the land
of
plenty
into the
oblivion
of
promised opulence
of corpulent
consumption
of fantasy
fiction
and
porn
into
no friction
no
fault
to have
those
images
recede
and
drift away
until
I do not
see
the pain
or
hear
the wailing
or
feel
the suffering
I
fade away
to be
comfortably
numbed
to
just do it
to be
all
that I can be
to enjoy
that
refreshing
sensation
teeth
so white
they sparkle
to
have it
my way
every
night
‘til 3:00 AM
I love your short lines. Cool poem!
good use of repetition
Those single words remind me of a skeleton boney finger pointing and poking accusingly!
Gemma
Love the drama of the format!
I like the phrase ‘corpulent consumption’.
this moves so smoothly
Ah, so powerful… we live in such a dichotomy…
We feel powerless but yet, we cna do something, even if it begins with our own family, a healing that reverberates…
Well done indeed…
Your short lines always please me. I like the dichotomy in this..
ignomorous ignominy
You have a way with words great post.
and you know you are not alone in seeking comfort in the images of plenty…. excellent post.. just excellent…..
Man, this cuts deep… and sadly true. We don’t really want to look, or see.
What a great poem! You speak of things we tend to shy away from, our reaction to suffering in the face of our own plenty, and you also examine why we choose or some choose to numb themselves.
Great work!
this sends a message to me and wakes me up to reality…though i often do not want to ‘go there’.
Very powerful and thought-provoking. I agree with the comment above mine; these are people and things we do shy away from. Which is not the right thing to do. Thanks for sharing this. Well done! G
http://www.mypoeticpath.wordpress.com
Ooops…I was referring to Maria Christina’s comment. Another one slipped in, as I typed mine! G
Wow. That kicked me right in the ass. I like the ‘corpulent consumption’ line and the way you use those commercial and arbitrary things we hear on the tv all day every day.
Oh, I’m here from I Will Not Eat The Darkness. This one is my WordPress Blog. I just forgot to log out of it.
i always enjoy reading your powerful, thought-provoking poetry. i particularly liked the direction this one took — the dichotomy of this world in which we live where some have all and some have none and how we so successfully disconnect from that which makes us uncomfortable and challenges us to look within ourselves and effect a change….yet, how many do?
another excellent post.
powerful poem. I really liked the line “hollow
from
complete
lack
of human
contact”
You speak also for my guilty soul.
I am reminded of the admonition of my mother when we left food on the plates that we had each filled. (When it was up to her, she was smart enough to give us smaller portions). “Think of the starving children in Africa,” she would say. There was a time when I made fun of this. But now I know that she was right!
This is a powerful poem evoking those heart=breaking photos that we have all seen.
Very graphic – I love it. So many want to turn away, to bury themselves in something else so they can’t see… reminds me of someone I admired very much – he committed sucide so he wouldn’t feel the pain of such things anymore. In doing so he hurt many more. Sometimes the answer isn’t to bury it, but to face it and make a difference. There are no tiny efforts – all are exponential.