I’m Tired

Photo by Shivani Bhatia

Ii I’m tired

Of waiting for people to be kind

Of those who strike at the backs of strangers

To relieve their self-indulged angst

I’m tired

Of critics who think their manner of expression ought to be yours

Of those who purport to understand your voice but who hear only the horn of their judgment

I’m tired

Of those who kill indiscriminately

And who lie pathologically

I’m tired of allies condemned in hate and ignorance

And the appeasement of enemies

The abandonment of friends

Wars we start and never end

I’m tired

Of vows too easily made and fidelity’s loss lamented

Of resentful spouses who pit child against parent

Of duty betrayed and the strife of our elders, forgotten and abused

Of burning rainforests and the tortured deaths of helpless wildlife, j’accuse

Of talking heads and political punditry

Of prejudgment

And justice delayed

Of punitive action born in sorrow

Of worry preventing a peaceful yesterday, today, and tomorrow

I’m horribly tired

Of martyrs murdering in the name of God

Of parents who don’t spare the rod

Of black and blue on anger’s victims

Of rockets and mortars, of cemeteries desecrated

Of schoolyard massacres and bloody hatred

I’m tired of humanity enslaving it’s own

Of fascist agendas and autocrat tone

Of imperialist regimes and civilization’s genocides

Of those whose heads are stuck in indifference’s side

I’m tired

Of those who boast of feast in the pleading faces of famine

Of those who never knew spirituality or religious freedom

Of the horrors that we swore to never repeat

Of the pain and suffering we continue to reap

I’m tired.

RAE; 10/22/19