Compassion

I make their pain my own
Through stories written in blood and
Paintings drawn in ash
I feel the bloody past and weep.

These crystal tears
Distort the written word from lies
Into truth.

I am brilliantly alive
Screaming for those who could not scream
Crying for those who could not cry
Bleeding with those who have bled.

Education let me read words
The world gave me one side of a newspaper
I turned the sheet over and
Squinted at the honesty printed
In fingernail letters on the back.

I read between the lines
I speak for those who cannot speak.

Differences are
Stretched so thick
You cannot see them. The sun
Sets upon your grief and
Rises upon theirs. The ink
Seeps between your page one and
Their page two.

Compassion

Ivy classrooms
Keep the guts of pain in the indigo shadows.

I befriend the ghosts of the people who
Live in corners.

Six inches of your stupidity
Turns into genius when I
Look up at the seams instead of
Admiring the finish.