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.