Oh yikes, lots to make up. It seems this happens every year, somehow, and I get caught at the last little bit trying very hard to finish up and get them all done. It's not easy, this challenge thing. Most of it - it's that I generally do not write every day anyway, let alone poetry. And, of course, there's my style of poetry - it rarely rhymes, has meter, etc - mostly free-flowing stuff. well, it's easy to get behind. So let's pick up where we left off, the last day of poetry as healing a nation.
This one....this one is a little different. It's not about the stuff we do, the challenges we face. This one is about the things we don't do. It's about the time when we look the other direction, when we don't say what needs to be said. The pain we cause by NOT doing what we know is right.
the unspoken moment
i watched it happen,
it didn't hurt,
it didn't mean anything,
but the kids down the street
were fighting, pulling hair,
cussing and screaming,
and i did nothing,
because they were not mine,
they had nothing to do with me.
that was the first time.
the second was worse,
and i said the same thing.
Not mine.
someone else's issue and problem.
then they started getting worse,
tagging buildings,
cars, until it no longer felt safe.
i moved away,
to a neighborhood where
i didn't have to worry.
it wasn't my fault.
not my problem.
the lawns were manicured,
the houses, nice,
the streets, safe.
and all was good.
my life was fixed,
and i never wondered what happened
in the lonely city street,
until i heard it on the news,
recognized the names as some i'd heard shouted,
and i wondered,
what would have happened
if i said something instead.
How many lives would have been changed?
Thanks for reading,
Me
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