Sisters and Brothers Poem

Sisters and Brothers? by Jenny - 10/11/23

Hearing about the atrocities?

Creates a visceral pain within

It seems so obvious with this violence

No one can truly “win”.?

Violence begets more violence

It is anger, trauma and power misplaced

Who did what to whom throughout history

Makes people want to save face.?

But no one looks good

With blood on their hands

How can loss of life and suffering

Ever be a good plan??

We grieve for those lost

And shake our heads at the ignorance

It is such an obvious case

Of cognitive dissonance.

People will say they want peace in their land

But abuse and separate

They flex their muscles, causing pain

bullies, throwing their weight.?

No race is better than another

We are all humans doing the best that we can

No one knows the pain and trauma of another

The struggles, of our fellow man.

We could have easily been born in another country

With another color to our skin or different belief

Being born and raised where we were?

Does not give anyone permission to cause others grief.?

We can try and try and wrap our heads around this

But it simply doesn’t make sense

Violence and anger separates?

Makes us all fearful, angry and tense.?

Have we not learned anything through history?

Don’t we know YET, love and peace is the way?

How many people need to suffer and die

before we can truly live freely every day?

It feels excruciating to watch the horrors unfold

But also impossible to turn a blind eye

We can take in enough knowledge to be aware

Also taking time to grieve and cry.

Staying in that place of anger and angst

Helps no one and empowers none

It will let the horrors and fear take over

That means the ugliness has won.?

We can send love and prayers daily, envisioning peace

And encourage others to do the same

We can feel empowered, gaining strength?

Stop pointing fingers of blame.?

Empowered we can come up with solutions

gathering with like minded people grants some peace

Leaning on one another, sharing hugs and tears

Can cause SOME of the pain to temporarily cease.

This of course won’t end in a split second

But it turns our attention to loving one another

After all we wouldn’t be this incensed

If at some level we didn’t see each other as sisters and brothers.?