Beyond the Black Hole

[Visit: a YouTube Video of the Poet’s reading]

What if there were other souls
On the other side of the black hole?
What if our hands reach out
and touch their hearts?
Could they be blacker?
Then when we do look back
will we see our hearts so white?

What if they do not believe in what we do?
what if individual truth matters not,
will we then convert those infidels
will we baptize them with fire
with dirt, with tears, with blood
with our arrogance shelling who they are?
will we teach them to be human?

What if they do not use money?
How will they be indebted to our banks?
What if they do not have chiefs?
How will we enslave them then?
What if they do not have a god?
Will we change our scriptures to include them?
Will we teach them to be human?

What if they crave no possessions?
What if they think they are all the same?
What if they need no protection?
What if they mean no one any harm?
How will we justify our shields and guns
flooding their land to strike civil war?
How will we teach them to be human?

What if they are far stronger and more advanced
yet they do not mean to raid our world?
Will we accept that we are not the best?
Will our warmongering heroes pick a fight?
To sacrifice what need not be sacrificed
to give the causeless martyrs a cause to die for;
can we but once not be so human?

_____

See also: The Scream Book Blog and The Scream on Amazon