"Empathy" by Vladan Ignatovic
Graphic suggested by Billie
"5 Days of Dispair"
04/29/04 StarfireIV
Like so many storms arriving from the Northeast
Pounding the Atlantic coast with the sound and the fury
I am set upon by agents of dispair from all sides
Being one used to handling other peoples children
I am usually able to resolve classroom drama easily
Enter dramatis personae of the adult world
Like the spectres of the betrayed
Returning to torment Richard III
A chorus of disdain, criticism, and rebuke
awaits my arrival every day at the office door
Things I thought I had resolved, found to be unmade
now festering with miscommunication and secondhand knowledge
By the time the awareness of a dear friend
lost to an insidious and divisive political movement
finally sinks in...
I am as numb to the experience as the bound captive
To the constant clicking of a revolver
inches from his temple by his captors
