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Watch the World Burn // Melting Wax (2 poems)

Two poems published by Collective Unrest

August 22, 2018

When the world around you

is burning,

how do you strike a match

to create your own flame?

How do you burn bright

amidst the coal-black

soot that has come to

cover us all like Vesuvius

raining down on those in Pompeii?

We now lie petrified,

afraid to move,

afraid to speak,

afraid.

Afraid of everything

we worked for and fought

against has come to rise again

and we fear for

the fate of our humanity.

Yet we refuse to fade

or let our flames extinguish-

they burn bright

amidst the hatred,

shedding light on all that still

must be changed.

As women rush to closets with

twisted wire necks of

coathangers like claws

clutched in hand;

as babies scream

for parents at the border,

ripped from solid security

of those who birthed them;

as men stand tall and women shrink;

colors begin to morph in meaning...

What will become of your flame?

When cages are meant for

people and locks

are kept without keys, who

do you answer to?

Who is the gatekeeper?

Where will you be

when the destruction of

basic human nature

is complete

and we fall back

in time to a dark place

we said "never again" but

it's far too similar for comfort

and the terror is

a national hum,

a vibration linking us,

palatable.

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