The machine did it coldly, as if no human hand had hidden behind the order just merely placed, and these streets, these geraniums on a hand-tended windowsill are already the past in the machine’s cold eyes.
This poem stayed with me because it never lets the human disappear behind systems, headlines, or machines. The question about pausing a war long enough to vaccinate children, but not long enough to end it, is devastating in its simplicity. I also admired the contrast between ordinary acts of care and the decisions that send lives into violence. A powerful meditation on responsibility, language, and what it means to remain human.
cut and cauterized yet still the reader bleeds .. such excellent writing
This poem stayed with me because it never lets the human disappear behind systems, headlines, or machines. The question about pausing a war long enough to vaccinate children, but not long enough to end it, is devastating in its simplicity. I also admired the contrast between ordinary acts of care and the decisions that send lives into violence. A powerful meditation on responsibility, language, and what it means to remain human.
So good, so true, so full of emotion...