This is how democracy dies.
Take a Saturday night massacre
and make it common
like daylily yellow in June –
other colors subdued.
This is how the outraged cry –
‘I will not be that one.’
The tank at Tiananmen Square
is an image that remains
though the spirit is crushed
human beings undone.
This is where kindness goes-
an underground class teaching
language to the wordless-
a girl empowered though her face
is unseen. Some live
some die
The usual mess it seems.
This is where the refugee lingers-
on a boat that is nationless
adrift on waters that see
no land.
They returned to Germany
And certain death.
This is how humanity dies:
remove the word humane,
add egotism and disdain,
mix in righteousness and lust
and you have the picture of us.
1/31/2017
Anne's mediocre poetry 