The Fifth Horseman
Famine
Watch as the 13 year old
Pushes food around her plate
And God forbid a piece makes it
To her mouth
She wouldn’t be an advocate
For the ‘Starving Kids in Africa’
She’d be one of them
Wanting after idols
And wearing a size 2
It isn’t enough
Never enough
She’s used to the hunger
The pains in her stomach
Used to the baggy clothes
The 7 miles a day
The fake smiles
The fake laughs
Imperfection
Is the killer here?
The greatest victory
The Black Horse was hoping for
Where the world chooses
To starve themselves
To death.
And you say nothing.
Conquest
Watch the bald children
With their lives withering away
As cancer rates climb
And doctors
And governments
Sweat to make excuses for the lack
Of a cure
As the kids pull their IV plugs
As they write their last notes
As they give up
Because what’s the point of fighting
If it all comes back?
And a little boy of 12
Crying in a closet
To escape the beeping machines
Finds a way to make it look like
A medical accident
Because his parents are just waiting
His school is waiting
His friends are waiting
For it to be over
And he doesn’t want to hold them
Back
He is not a miracle
His is a burden
He is a wish-granter
He will die
While the White Horse laughs
Its latest conquest
And you say nothing.
Rage
Watch as the boy from school
Eyes rimmed red with alcohol
Beats out a punching bag
His bruised hands covered in white
The anger burning in his eyes
And when a smaller boy
With blonde curls and thick glasses
Gets too close
He is pounded like a brick wall
Running away crying
His 'manliness' gone
While the boy of anger
Is satisfied for a few
As he signs the papers
As he heads to camp
To continue to beat
Boys his age with different skin
And say it’s for freedom
And say it’s for a country
Draped in red; white; blue
He will laugh at death
And laugh at pain
While inflicting it on others
Because he can’t go home
There is no home
He hopes he dies in battle
Because at least now the bruises
Have a real excuse
And he has an escape
As he spills others blood
The way his was spilled.
And you say nothing.
Death
Watch as the pretty girl
Carefully cleans her locker
Skipping classes she’s never once
Missed
Too smart to find a friend
Too strong to fall apart
Too weak to stay together
With parents who hear words
But not the sound of the screams
Underneath
With companions who don’t see
The smile stretch her lips
But not her eyes
As she writes a note at lunch
As she picks up the bottle she accidently
Dropped
As she misses school the next day
And the next
And the next
And you finally hear the news
That her parents found her in the bath
Late one night
And she is gone
Gone
Gone
And you said nothing.
It takes a long time
Before people realize
That there are not four horsemen
Of the apocalypse
There are five
Five as you cry alone in your room
Five as you stay in bed because you can’t get up
Five as you smile and ignore the pain
Five as you slit your wrists
And thighs
And neck
And shoulders
And stomach
And lungs and heart and throat
As you hide the screams
Clawing inside you
As you pretend the pain
Isn’t enough to kill you?
And you don’t talk about
Rape
Or suicide
Or cuts
To death
And bullies
And anger
And starving
And imperfection
And standards
And anxiety
And depression
And love becomes foreign
And words become foreign
And you’re speaking
But you feel mute
And nobody listens
And nobody hears
And maybe they care
And maybe they don’t
And maybe you’ll last
One more day
And maybe
You won’t.
Silence.
This is the fifth horseman
As they witness murder
And say nothing
As they hear a scream
And say nothing
As they see a car crash
And do nothing
As they feed the media
And say nothing
As girls and boys
Starve to be pretty
Cut to be loved
Beat to be idolized
And they say
Nothing.
Because half the world
Could be saved
Could be loved
Could be happy
If it weren’t for the
Invisible Horseman
Laughing his victory
As he convinces everyone
To say nothing.
And you know this.
And you say nothing.