A World That Wants Better Than This

A poem

Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash

A mother cries for the loss of her child

and someone on the internet starts a sentence with a “whatabout-ism”,

as if that somehow makes them better

as if that somehow makes them just

as if that somehow erases the fact that they chose to withhold their empathy

and I wonder

what it will take

to stop making pain a competition

to see the story within the human

to remember that everyone you meet

is someone’s child;

and I hope

and I pray

and I wish

for a world that does better than this

and wants better than this.

May their memories be a blessing.