Saturday, March 15, 2008

Averted

I just wrote this. I think I'll read this one at the FLOBOTS concert instead of the other one. I like it better. Please, I still need feed back!

Averted
Can you see?
Did you see the bruises on the woman you passed in the store this morning, gifts from a boyfriend who knocks the life out of her piece by piece with every present he drops?
Can you see?
Did you see the t-shirt prophets, sermonizing on street corners, peddling their powdered salvations, surrounded the empty-shelled mannequins of their caged converts who sold their souls away by the hour?
Can you see?
Did you see the lost souls, the modern nomads whose minds have hidden until they can only rattle around in their skulls like the cans rattling in their bogarted carts?
Can you SEE?
Did you see those kids with their arms and thighs tattooed with permanent train tracks left by their short vacations into control and release, rides on the edge?
Can. you. see?
Did you see those children, with bodies wasting away from their hunger or food almost as much as their souls are wasting away from their hunger for one tiny whisper of affection?
CAN YOU SEE?
Can you see the shadows and ghosts of a consciously ignorant society, a world so eager to label away their problems, to file them into corners and closets, and then leave them, cheerfully choosing to forget, to whitewash over the mold and marks of desperation on the wall left by PEOPLE that were obliterated into echoes and smoke by those with the power to improve but averted their eyes because it was easier?
Can you see?
because let me tell you, as a whole country, as a whole world, we don’t.
We put up our rose colored windows and mask our shame behind what’s "in", and what’s "now". We infuse our ears with iPod anesthetic, hide behind tabloid tablets and pay-per-view pills from the helpless and hopeless, and deem them dirt on the soles of our designer shoes.
Let me tell you,
Averting our eyes doesn’t stop a tidal wave from crashing to shore.
and until we start seeing
we’re blind.
Here's the thing:
Until we start SEEING
we're blind.

1 comment:

Sully said...

Kwonched, I think this poem is brilliant. I wish so much that I could have been at the Symposium to hear you deliver it. Did you know that I presented at the symposium last year? It's a great place.

The various "invisible" people to whom you refer are incredible. You included some very rich symbolism, especially regarding the extent to which we go to not see them.

I loved it. You're brilliant. Thanks for sharing.