Bystanders

 

Imagine a world wherein no one had philosophy. 

Imagine this world as a bigger world 

with more people who were mirror images of their neighbors. 

Imagine these images every day 

were shattered upon rocks 

only to reform, not stronger or weaker

but as the same as they were before the beginning of time. 

Imagine time had no philosophy. 

Imagine time understood us as we understand it; that with

every passing human we grow closer to the next one in line. 

Imagine this line stood for miles upon miles. 

Imagine the line was all for nothing,

that the people standing in it

were doing so just to stand in front of the person behind them. 

Imagine the people in the front 

and back of the line could speak to each other. 

Imagine their conversation. 

Imagine halfway across the world that same conversation

was being held in the middle of the sea. 

A conversation of nothing while the seas boil over. 

Imagine the rocks under the sea 

never turning to sand. 

Imagine your hands in the boiling sea, yet you feel nothing. 

Imagine glass, reflecting a mirror. Oil slicks spanning fourteen miles. 

Imagine toxins swimming with the fishes. 

Imagine the people being struck with disease 

and the unfortunate deliverance of poverty. 

Imagine hunger and famine. 

Imagine high rolling hills topped with a tank storing radioactive sludge. 

Imagine our world. 

You don't need a very strong imagination.

You only need eyes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This poem is about: 
My country
Our world

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