and the mother last seen
driving south
the father gone for so long
that no one
remembers his name
and these words
should have power but
they don't
i should be angry but
am only tired
can only sit at this empty table
in this cold house and wait
for the next atrocity to occur
can only listen to
the baby cry upstairs
the spike that
holds us together
long and sharp and
driven deep through both
our hearts
or this place where
an eight year-old boy rapes
his four year-old sister
this place where
anyone's child is found dead
in a locked cage
is found covered with shit and
with cigarette burns
and what if all you can be is angry?
what if the sunlight is
beautiful but meaningless?
and i remember that you wouldn't smile
i remember kissing your scars
in a silent room
or maybe this begins too sound
too much like poetry
maybe pollock said it best when
he said nothing at all
do you see?
we spend our lives
repeating our mistakes
we dream in color and we let
the starving babies starve
and no one really cares
listen
there are obscene amounts of money
to be made from war
there are thirteen year-old girls
willing to fuck you for just a
taste of it and this is how
religions are born
i have yet to meet a god who
didn't want me on
my knees
twelve illegal aliens found dead
in the back of a van
on a dirt road in new mexico
do you know this song?
or what about the fifteen year-old boy
shot to death with a machine gun
because his brother owes his dealer money?
what about the teenage girls raped
in motel rooms for the internet?
imagine a world full of questions
without answers
imagine priests fucking young boys
in the name of god
the way starving children are a
political issue
and not a human one
and do you remember why
victor jara was murdered?
do you remember how many bodies
were pulled from the congo?
how many young women were sent
to the rape camps and
never seen again?
or maybe none of it matters
maybe there's nothing you can do
to save anyone
it needs to be considered
John Sweet has outlasted every small-press fad for the past fifteen years. His latest chapbook, Enemy, is available from Pink Anarchkitty Press.