But I this beauty’s grunge perceive
Projection of my ego’s fear
So let such love that cannot be
Reveal my weakness to be clear
Reveals a jagged truth
Painful and disturbing
Integrity’s challenge
Never are we more beautiful
Than when we conquer
The falsehoods of our fears
I linger here
Instead the heated hearth of home
Frigid fingers upon my camera work
Until chill moment captured thus
By an eye that cannot shirk
In the infinity of moments passing
Before a moment could be noticed
What choice was there but to be
Though such was not a choice
In the next infinity of moments passing
Before a moment could be valued
What choice was there to be good
What choice was there to be evil
So I wonder if
Somehow
The more we choose to value
The less we choose to be
The more good and evil we create
Out of the nothingness of being
Which preceded time
Some might say
Dark times ahead
But unknowns
Are not darkness
One hand holds the chalk of light
While the other clears the slate
Upon the dark revealed we write
With clarity our fate
Left to wonder how so few can remember
From where we have come
To where we’ll return
And where we are stuck
Nonetheless, they should come
This is not a place for those
Who dislike the crush of a crowd
Who want a fresh coat of paint
Or a breath of fresh air
Nonetheless, they should come
This is not a place for those who believe
That people’s conditions reflect their choices
That there is one right way to live
Or one way to think
Nonetheless, come
This is not the place for them
Because their cherished values
Will be confronted
Every moment of every day
And that is why
You should come
Because this scene is neither
Remarkable nor unusual
It is mundane
Everyday
Most of the world’s people
Your brothers and sisters
Live out their lives
In scenes like this one
Or what you would consider to be
Much much worse
Scenes which appear
Dirty
Unkempt
Dilapidated
But if you don’t come
If you don’t spend quality time
With your human family
In their homes
You may never learn
The true beauty of this scene
And all the people in it
Nonetheless, they deserve better
From those of us
Who assume we have better
Because we are better
In no small measure
We have better
Because we’ve bettered them
But are superior in no other way
Than an accident of natal geography
It’s easier to see that
If you come
So if you are enabled
By conditions of privilege
To travel internationally
Privilege built in part on their poverty
You should come
The entire structure collapsed
Under the weight of culpability
Leaving him, finally, exposed
Had he any integrity at all
Such a rampart may have protected him
Buttressing his image sealed his doom
