You, me, us
We’re all born as animals
Mammals to be precise
Helpless in our newness
Dependent on others
Especially our mothers
But at what point
Do we become human?
Is there a moment of awakening
Or is it a gradual becoming?
Is it a first breath
Or something much more earned?
Is it something some of us
Never achieve and some somehow lose?
Is it a thing or a way of being
Or a something only becoming?
We take for granted what we are
We grant it to others too
But what if we are all wrong
And human means something new.
(9/5/26)
I have seen a lot in this life,
The only thing I haven't seen is that which doesn't exist,
I have seen a lot in this life,
That which my mouth cannot explain.
Tell us what you saw Mr. Stephen,
What is it you saw that Troubles you,
Did you see the rainbow or seven colours of madness,
Tell us Mr. Ekemezie what exactly you saw?
I saw people I saw inhumanity,
I saw heartlessness in-love with wickedness,
I saw bitterness wedding greediness,
Callousness came to the wedding wearing injustice.
I saw evil ruling the universe,
Anger, dishonesty and falsehood are there with her,
I saw a sick earth where everything goes,
A world full of oppression and strife,
No humanity at all which keeps me speechlessly mouthless.
we have food for 12 billion
we only feed 8 billion...
it's not capitalism, it's pure cruelty
They're knocking at me door
In the middle of the night
They're knocking at me door
Giving me an awful fright.
They taking me
To a camp where
Ashes fall like black snow.
I'll not be overjoyed
By goose-stepping boys
With boots to their knees, oh hey,
And brown shirts and billy clubs
Cheese grater belly rubs
Coming to take me away.
Have you been
Hiking the Quiraing trail on the isle of Skye?
watching golden eagles as they fly by?
Have you been
Hiking through fields of paintbrush on Mount Hood?
From Trillium Lake to Timberline, if you haven't you should.
Have you been
Pushing a frontier, discovering the new
Being all you can be, pursuing every clue?
Have you been
Locked in a small box on a Sandinista command?
They call it a Casita because there's no room to stand.
Have you been
Found dead in a Gulag before you might have been traded
For a Russian hitman, now all hope faded.
Have you been
Imprisoned by the scheming of one man's small mind
wings clipped, hemmed in, and confined?
Have you been
Locked up for ten years in Ariel Castro's basement
Chained, beaten, having ten years wasted?
Have you been
In solitary confinement for a year, because you protested fraud
In a D.C. jail, rights trampled roughshod.
Have you been
Dying with no friends left, in a hospice bed
Your sons think you are unaware, but you're all there, not yet dead.
Have you been
Dreaming at your desk, with your eyes wide open?
Looking for space, wishing for time to surf life's ocean?
Carbon human lives address, express ideas? debate caress'
All mammals made of carbon too' walk and live some are; confined to zoo's, a manmade place to observe
And gather; revenue in that preserve' yet now a human
Zoo is planned, with vax and chip in many lands, maybe
Worming ? with casteration.? A tax on living? The new
Sensation' your footprint eyeprint, what you may eat.? this
To be called utopia' do you find it neat? One great big zoo
Where you'll be learned, to accept without question or
You will; be spurned.' Oh what releif.' At least a choice.! To
Stand in reality, the only recourse' free will; free thought i'd
Rather choose.' than plastic inhumanity's ill fitting shoes.'
So scorn and scoff, threaten of death.' I'll stand and fight
For my right to the breadth, and the height; also the depth
Of Gods creation, all its richness its behests, in a universe
That has no end! what say you reader? What thoughts
Impend.?
Planning for my fall was a priority
Trying to destroy my purity
Forgetting about my ability
Their act of inhumanity
Made me discover their inferiority
And decided to bring it to reality
Had to work hard to strengthen my security
Since all this happened trying to fight for equality
Challenges came in for my prosperity
Godly renowned my superiority
Poem by
Muzungu Noela
Farm laborer
Produces
Food for you and me;
Commits suicide
Owing hunger and
Non repayable debt...
We accumulate
His grains
Eat
Waste...
(Every day, 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India)
03 December 2021
Deforestation destruction
causes death and devastation
plus ignorance negationist
inhumanity activist
absurd vile criminal action
The inhumanity of Man is really quite atrocious.
He thinks himself intelligent, he thinks himself precocious.
And yet his acts of selfishness show inately he's unkind.
His sudden acts of cruelty can boggle lesser minds.
No animal will torture before it finally kills;
But Mankind on the other hand can really give one chills.
He loves to feel the power that he holds above the head,
Of any creature he may own if he chooses then it's dead;
Just because he is annoyed it barked or caused him trouble;
So he killed it in some painful way, he wouldn't take the trouble,
To find the beast another home where it's love would be returned,
For that's all it ever wanted, it's little heart still yearned,
For just a kindly word from him, a gentle hand, that's all,
A little comfort and some food and he was give his all,
To a man who didn't need to vent his imperfections,
Upon a helpless little beast who only wanted affection.
I wanted to think there was a sliver of human in those eyes
But I could not find it.
They were bleak, desolate.
The energy he exuded was potent and evil.
If he was not the devil, he was high in the ranks of hell.
I could not bear his stare.
I was reminded of every dark alley I had been too afraid to enter
wondering why I had chosen this one on this night with this element of evil.
He made a move toward me and I knew all was lost.
Speechless at Auschwitz
by Ko Un
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
At Auschwitz
piles of glasses
mountains of shoes ...
returning, we stared out different windows.
Ko Un speaks for all of us, by not knowing what to say about the evidence of the Holocaust, and man's inhumanity to man.
Ko Un was speechless at Auschwitz.
Someday, when it’s too late,
will we be speechless at Gaza?
—Michael R. Burch
Keywords/Tags: Holocaust, Auschwitz, antisemitism, inhumanity, brutality, terror, mass murder, genocide, infanticide, matricide, ethnic cleansing, Gaza, racism, Zionism
Neglect
by Michael R. Burch
What good are your tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is your concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?
What good, the warm benevolence of tears
without action?
What help, the eloquence of prayers,
or a pleasant benediction?
Before this day is gone,
how many more will die
with bellies swollen, wasted limbs,
and eyes too parched to cry?
I fear for our souls
as I hear the faint lament
of their souls departing ...
mournful, and distant.
How pitiful our "effort,"
yet how fatal its effect.
If they died, then surely we killed them,
if only with neglect.
Speechless at Auschwitz
by Ko Un
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
At Auschwitz
piles of glasses
mountains of shoes ...
returning, we stared out different windows.
Ko Un speaks for all of us, by not knowing what to say about the evidence of the Holocaust, and man's inhumanity to man.
Ko Un was speechless at Auschwitz.
Someday, when it’s too late,
will we be speechless at Gaza?
—Michael R. Burch
Keywords/Tags: Holocaust, Auschwitz, antisemitism, inhumanity, brutality, terror, mass murder, genocide, infanticide, matricide, ethnic cleansing, Gaza, racism, Zionism
thorns of the frontier fence
is venomous!
these thorns sting and kill
the innocent peoples
to save the rank of kings and queens;
these thorns understand
only vengeance killing;
not humanity!
-April 30, 2019, Chattogram
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