Human Rights

 
Written for Human Rights Day 12/10/14.

Human Rights


Aren't
human rights
for everyone?

Not to be
determined by another
whether you
prosper or fail,
live or die?

Is Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
the right of only a select few?
Is joy the dream of even a lesser few?

Happiness
does not thrive
in starving children
too weak to stand.

Who will stand for them?

Why do we
exile and revile the
homeless and the poor?

Why do we turn away?

Do they remind us
that we too are but one
paycheck away from
the streets?

How would you feel
carrying your life
in a shopping cart
with no money for food?

How would you feel
to have laid your
life on the line,
only to be left
alone on the streets
of the country
you served?

Let’s no longer
tolerate
discrimination violation
servitude and slavery
torture with its tyranny.

Let’s no longer
fear those who are
different.

Should you be smoked
for lifting a pack of smokes?
Does a death sentence
fit the crime?

Let’s no longer
ignore those living
in exile within themselves,

imprisoned by others
who think they can play
with women and children,
toys to be
tossed away
once broken.

Let’s not shoot young girls
in the head for wanting an
education.

Automatic fire
gunsmoke in the air
the killing fields
have come to town,
now in
frantic classrooms
under empty
desks and chairs.

Columbine,
Sandy Hook.

Rest in peace.

Virginia Tech,
Peshawar.

Rest in peace.

Freedom is the way!
Not a path to choose
as a shattered world
is terrified as
dignity is buried
in mass graves.

Mexico.
Students merely
thinking of protesting.

Rest in peace.

The Ukraine.
Numbers unknown.

Rest in peace.

Aren’t we craving
freedom from
the wrenching pain?

Aren’t we hungering
for the courage to join
for freedom?

Isn’t it time to
raise our voices
and rise above
the deafening sound
of heartless terror?

Shall we hide from our own eyes
the projection or reflection of the
poverty and oppression
residing within our own souls?

Freedom is the way
as our world is
awakening.

A world
struggling in chaos
as it glimpses an
endless sea of possibility.

A world awakening to see
its own reflection
in its own eyes
in its humanity
in everyone
in me.

 
 

    
 

    
 

3rd Place Winner of round 12 of "Invalid Item" 

I read this poem at several venues.
A list of my open mic poetry readings is here "Open Mic" 


Line count: 114 lines
Form: Free verse
Written for Whispers Of The Soul Poetry contest due 11:59pm WDC time Dec 31, 2014.
Prompt: December Special Days   December 10th;  Human Rights Day
 

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