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Living on in the Village of Collateral Damage
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American Bed Time Stories Well, if you've never seen human
Wrest from self
Wholly shredded
By beast, before
Be grateful
'Kiss all your kids' kind of thankful
You're not here picking up the pieces
with us all
Living on in the village
of Collateral Damage
Where discomposed feet scurry
Writhing mid-search
Whose quilted
Wails weave worry, loss
"Watch horizons'
Mountains for massive metal eagles!"
As we're still picking up the pieces
Of people
Living on in the village
of Collateral Damage
The Unaffected
Consider outcomes that are cataclysmic; an acceptable loss so long as they continue to live and thrive ( a Multi/star General's perspective). It takes a village or takes one out. Well said. The 21st Century is not going to be about compassion either.
~S~
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It takes a village....
I am afraid your wisdom has never been more precise than right here in these remarks. A 40 year (and counting) Stanford study found that, asking the same questions that measure empathy among college-aged students, there had been a major decline since the beginning of the study, and that this decline went into a dramatic crescendo just after 2000, when social media platforms became widespread in use (ie. dawn of Facebook). So, the 21st century was borne into trouble, built on top of the trouble that was already flourishing within prior in limits in humanity for empathy.
Excellent! This poem
Excellent! This poem reminded me that I, too, lived in a village of collateral damage---the damage done, with well meaning intention, by my parents in trying to force my conformity to their opinions, and the opinions of their seemingly countless number of friends who had some opinion as to how, where, when, and why I was to grow up, and into what I was to grow. You hae given it a name that I never was able to come up with.
Starward
Your thoughts offer me a lot
I greatly appreciate your kind remarks, but also your detailing of how you connected with "Living with..". The lens through which you could particularly relate really maximises the metaphoric elements. I find that pretty fascinating, and also encouraging in that it might serve in a small way to help interconnect the different ways in which many of us live in these 'villages of collateral damage'. I also really appreciate your comment in how it furthes my own understanding of your experiences and perspective within your own work, so thank you for all of that.