The Invisible

Everything is wrong.

Wars and famines and sexual sins, sure,

We can all talk in generalities.

Preachers and teachers do it all the time. But

What about the children armed to

Shoot the innocent

In order to save the ones they love?

What about the swollen stomachs and reeking flesh; bloodshot

Eyes that declare starvation? What about the many deaths

From preventable diseases while

Those who can help just look away?

TV, fictitious and vicious, pushing boundaries of what is considered

Naked. Violent. Appropriate. Permissible.

Wrong.

Exposing the innocent to our world, drawing them in,

Letting their consciences bleed. Innocence becomes mythology.

Blinded by these publicized pornographies, we are willing to soak in the filth

And the chaos and the grime of the world. As long as it is fiction.

As long as it is not our world. Until  

It’s your own child masturbating,

Or your own cousin with her brother’s child,

Or your own uncle confessing murder,

Or your own daughter sold to slavery,

Or your own sins and secrets exposed. No one talks

About the uncomfortable topics, and so

They continue.

Allowed ultimate access by

Their taboo nature; those who know enough will not

Warn those who will not stop

Until they know enough.

Religions and philosophies and politics and reasoning all conflict with each other,

Cannibals among the damned.

If we can turn our faith to some belief, but that belief

Is only a convenience,

How convenient is the recognition that we devour ourselves?

Don’t give it a name; it’s too uncomfortable.  

Don’t call it “conscience” or “ethics”,

Or “God”.

But there is something

Bigger than ourselves

That must be the deciding line of what is right

And wrong.

If we are the ones to set that line, then we will,

Because we always have,

Draw the line to fit our convenience.

And if that line is drawn as merely a

Boundary of convenience,

Where convenience allows corrupt politicians

And human trafficking and genocide,

A convenience that makes Justice a whore,

If we submit our sense of right and wrong to such a subjective and

Unstable existence,

If we believe that by merely covering our eyes

Or refusing to open our mouths or ears,

That the bad things of the world will then become invisible…

Well, it seems we have already tried that, and

Everything is wrong.