Without a name

numbers march into nothing

shot by nobodies, following orders

buried under genocide leaves

Who cares about 6 million?

We care about the girl trapped in a well

She has a name

her individual pain

hurts our hearts

We don’t understand numbers

If six people in the world understand, who cares?

that’s why so many mathematicians are crazy

What if zero understand

You might as well be God

Who understands God?

There’s a woman I know

70 years of age

who has played the violin

since the age of seven

Now her arthritis

won’t allow her to play

She cries, when she talks about her love

her friends try to understand

“She’s played her whole life,” they say.

I’ve played the piano for 10 years

and now, I play a plastic keyboard

“It’s not the same,” I complain.

“That’s interesting, you feel that way,” people say.

We are like beautiful bugs, stared at

10s of thousands in a museum.

After 30 minutes

insects look the same, even the big ones

like a mass grave, under glass

“Let’s go get some ice cream!”

People can’t understand the world’s hurt

if they could, they would be crushed by the terror

those bugs, pierced through their multi-colored armor

put on display, for show.