Images, Images, Images Help Us Forget the Holocaust

Today we cannot pity long ago

Lost soldiers, lost Patroklus, Lancelot

Or stake-burned saints.  We simply do not know

A way to do that since we now are caught

Up willy nilly in the onslaught on

Our screens.  We see the children being droned,

The babies being starved, the shooters drawn

To schools, all being mercilessly “phoned”

For thoughts and prayers.  Our living rooms receive

The brutal bombs down buildings with the kids

And doctors slaughtered.  Hearts cannot then cleave

To decency, all sympathy on skids.

  We cannot even weep for what is now

    Crushed down on us.  We simply don’t know how.

~ Phillip Whidden