Indifference

INDIFFERENCE

A nation at war within our own lines,
Loss and destruction ignored in most minds.
Death and despair, pain to the core,
It’s all right here, just look out your door.

A young father takes his life after killing his kin.
A grandmother beaten, bruises cover her skin.
A mother and children escape to a shelter,
While our powerless elderly fret as they swelter.

A helpless child is sold for mom’s next fix,
While a squad of young men gang rape for kicks.
A curious teen exploited while playing online.
Hopes of a bright future erased from her mind.

A loving man brutally beaten, then left for dead,
A homophobic acquaintance feared something he said.
A frail being covets her last life-sustaining pill,
Her final thread of hope crushed on Capitol Hill.

A newborn begs for food, his cries go unheeded.
Backs turned in silence when help is most needed.
Rage boils over, another lover is battered,
But the selfish proceed as if none of it mattered.

That face on the milk carton will smile no more,
But much of our masses conveniently ignore.
Kids sleep in the streets, their young innocence gone.
What has become of our sense of right and wrong?

With each passing day another life is abandoned,
One who might have been saved, no longer is standing.
A shoulder to lean on or the touch of a hand…
What’s so tough about caring? I don’t understand?

Our death toll keeps rising in this war at our gates.
With indifference and heartlessness tragedy awaits.
But we turn on the news and view foreign battles,
Deaf to the call of our own war drum rattles.