People. Wonderful, social creatures.
“Smartest species on Earth”,
or so we say. Yet, so easily does reason,
fall apart. Rage and differences,
always blinding Nature’s rebellious youth.
People are attacked. Retaliation follows.
Soon, scarlet floods the streets.
Hues deeper than the Red Sea.
Reminders of protests ignored.
Blinded by a desire to remove those
“too different.”
Logic saw us build weapons, rage made
empathy the bullets.
Empathy and guns empty now. One day,
the crimson rivers will follow and run dry.
It will be too late. The cycle of rage
Making us throw sand in our own eyes. How quickly
Mother Earth’s smartest become her blindest.
About the Poem
This poem was inspired by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel. I have seen too much about “who is on the right side of things” and decided instead to talk about the objectively sad aspects of global violence and how if the world continues moving from one war to the next, a climate crisis won’t matter anymore because there won’t be anyone left to suffer from climate change.
About the Author
Aiden Quinney is an emerging writer, who focuses on fantasy and science fiction prose and has begun dabbling in poetry through works that criticize world issues. This poem is part of the coursework of the Advanced Seminar in Creative Writing, Professor Diana Manole, at Trent University in Canada.