Listen to the World

They are out there you know,

people with real lives,

ones that matter

Tonight’s news after the snow

while detailing drives

windswept clatter

A story ran about a father

shot in the face

by his younger

son in the garage where bother

Seldom sheds such grace

on a quiet neighbor.

We listened while our country

endured a foreign speaker

watched our statesmen

toss salt and vinegar heartily

on our president our leader

we really call them men?

Tonight there will be lovely starving

children playing their last play

until their bodies close down

a shroud will cover them not knowing

their innocence was in no way

responsible for our frown.

When I was just a little boy I couldn’t

know beyond my magical world

lives mattered far beyond

my own