It is easy to turn our backs on those who hurt

They are not my
child
mother, father
sister, brother
friend
me

Human compassion
becomes a reversed psyche of
“It’s not my job.”

Social justice and equality?
I’ve got it already
Let the poor be poor and the victims bear blame
Because none of it applies
to our comfortable existence

We say “no”
fearing that giving depletes our bank account
Thinking it’s material belongings that feed our soul.

They are not Christian,
Hindu or Buddhist
Agnostic or Atheist

He holds the hand of a man
And her, a woman’s.

They’re not like me.

Our culture is based on
competition
we’re bound to remain separate

from one another
a society of “me”—

What an insane philosophy

They are human and you are human and I am human
Under the same sky gazing at the same bright stars
Standing in different corners of our world
looking up at the same angle
We’re thriving from the same oceans
Oceans we’re all taking for granted

We search for more ways to accumulate things
as if we are here to maximize only self-interest
We’re a culture of avarice and excess
while we walk in singularity around this overheating rock
This rock that we have never had a choice but to share

Each and every one of us needs to do better
to not box ourselves into our corners
thinking that what happens over there won’t happen here

So it does not matter who we are
versus who they are
Where we stand in proximity to them
There is only one rock
and we’re all on it together.

Author: Kimberly Kostashuk

Image: Pedro Ribeiro Simoes/Flickr 

Editors: Renée Picard; Emily Bartran