Somewhere in the world

somewhere in the world

bombs are falling

don't look away

somewhere in the world

a man creates a lie

and uses it

to justify a rain of terror

somewhere in the world

children are dying,

one by one and

two by two

as they flee the ark

of a covenant we've failed

to keep

somewhere in the world

another generation

joins the legion

of those who left their lives

on the altar

of another man's ambition

somewhere in the world

survivors kneel in the ashes

of charnel-houses

of memory

don't look away

somewhere in the world

a woman feels hope slip away

and prays to exchange

her all-powerful god

for a kinder one

somewhere in the world

a man watches hope leave

and fights anyway

to retrieve it

somewhere in the world

a woman brings bread,

warm from the oven

and swaddled in white cloth,

and asks that we eat it

in remembrance

somewhere in the world

are killing fields

where the price of entry

is your soul

don't look away

somewhere in the world

a man believes in the circularity

of life,

and that there will be a time

when lies stick hard

in the throat of those

who utter them

choking off air

somewhere in the world

a woman ponders the difference

between letter

and spirit of the law

and asks if it is

where justice lives

somewhere in the world

grief echoes against walls

where an involuntary cry of loss

is singular and universal

in its moment of utterance

confirming that some things

can never be the same again

don't look away

the world needs witnesses

who are not afraid

to speak