Small Favors

The pictures of the Holocaust,

Ghastly and unyielding,

Show starving people in their camps,

Terrible and unfeeling.

So depressed they feel no emotion.

So hungry they cannot eat.

So sore they feel no pain.

So tired they cannot sleep.

Lost among the numbers.

Their deaths a “tragedy”.

No longer people to us.

Images we refuse to see.

We do not want to notice,

So we turn our heads away.

Afraid of what they'll show us,

We shut our hearts and pray.

I see these images often,

But they're no black and white stills.

They're alive and broken

In mini-skirts and heels.

I see the women standing

With bones flush against their skin.

No fat, not even muscle,

In an effort to be thin.

They've embraced the forced fashion

Of the concentration camps,

Starving themselves to achieve

An ideal that is but a sham

I've seen the evidence of these women

With their broken souls and hearts.

They litter our commercials

To sell gambling debts and cars.

I've seen the celebrities

Who've reveled in the fun,

And I've witnessed the repercussions

In the lives of those I love.

So I ask for no small favor

When I pray for hope, and not pity,

When I beg for all to notice

The light of their inner beauty.