University of Minnesota Human Rights Program Human Writes - Life Sentences

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Cell blocks wrapped in bodies
Paint tinted black
Skull and skeleton against each other
Barred from life
Stolen from the living

Chronicle apocalypse of leaving
Part pen part grave
See such neighbors walk the street
Brazen is life
Severed from the living

Child of our child
Present only in prayer
Switch their eyes for mine
Born away
Sentenced

A poem about the West’s turning of blind eyes to children and people in crisis, wishing thoughts and prayers, but were these children of the West, maybe things would be different. About how the West can allow or propagate suffering happening around the world and subsequently give people – including children – life sentences of sorts through inaction. We all have a responsibility to help each other.