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Compassion
by
H. Vanoy Barton
See them on the downtown train, or huddling in the rain.
Pain of living offset by the blessing of dying,
many are discarded after a lifetime of trying.
Some arrived seeking the legend we once were, some sacrificed limbs fighting
for your American Dream, your sparkling baubles and fast machines.
Does your vision see only dollar signs and community revitalization?
Desperation is their companion noble and true, they are part of you,
part of me, they live in the land of the lost and the home of the Greed.
Lost vocabulary to the elite gentry in a society of plenty.
But a word beats with the breast of those who can actually see.
In a nation of Idol and a nation of number one,
in this nation fast dying, the word is seldom heard and
more rarely understood, a word that can remake America as the promised land:
compassion. It is a word I doubt you know
as you espy the latest IPO and dream of real estate gold,
it is an ember dying in the frigid cold of the American heart.
It is free use though, it is hope and the last link to a land that was once great,
but that is now consumed by avarice and hate. Live compassion before it is too late.
© 2005 - 2008 H. Vanoy Barton, all rights reserved.
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