Emily Winters                                                                                                                     

“Numb”

I may have become numb

To the incessant hatred that thrums

Around my limbs

Cushioning my soul

A low whining buzz

Chainsaw melody

As the loss of life continues to rise

And there continues to be no clear definition

Of what is a crime

There seems to be a glorification of the past

A fierce longing

The delusion that there was something there

To which we must get back

Back to a world of black and white

Good and bad

But that was a world of white only

And this is a world of shoot first

Ask later

A trigger happy world

Filled with skittish people

Fearful society chained in place

By customs and expectations

Yet this is a society that questions

The norm and lives in color –

If that is what you want me to believe

Then why do we constantly adhere

To our old habit and beliefs

Old habits die hard

Terror grips us

And faith guides us to self-destruction

Faith guides us to illumination

Faith guides us to slaughter innocents

Is our message loud enough

Can you hear our pain

The sizzle of our collective flesh

Oozing from the pan towards the impending flames

These are our beliefs

A society who does nothing but retreat

Farther into the darkness

Deeper into the roots

Tracing our genealogy back into their caves

So that we don’t have to say

We can be change.