The Effect of Doing Nothing

10/13/12 Trails of your tears are seen on the grounds of time Twice removed; I see the sheer impact of the grime I didn’t even try to stop it; I would only add to the pain I saw their eyes glaze over when they realized you were dead And I hated myself for all the things I had said I put on the sheets of endless sorrow—what we call rain I fled from the living, an early retirement Giving into the darkness of my solitary confinement I scratched the scabs of dry tears building in my disclosed eyes Only to open them to a deplorable land A land and people I have never come to understand Now I can never silence the shrilling cries Tears everywhere—tears filling my heart Piling on emaciated stillborns in the familiar death cart I see women, children, grown men screaming in rage And the crusty eyes close again, not knowing what to do I am merely a coward—a faltering fool Every other quality I had once possessed is hazed Raise the sun on my darkened gloom of today I wish only to take all of the self away To make room for others in this solitary state For the next time hate rains down upon the ground, I will take all of the blame without a sound For no one deserves my distilled, dark fate