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"None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself"
-Prophet Muhammad
By Abraham Appel
Smiles grow wider
Laughter jumps out faster and louder
While sensations
And compassions
Are lowered in Submission
To war time patriotism
Many are refusing to see the reality behind the wars we've made.
Refusing to humanize the dying;
Even as they're reaching out to be saved
Taking pride
In America's refusal to uncover lies
Proclaiming love it or leave it
But loving it so little
That we refuse to demand excellence of it
From this American reality I try to hide
Try to turn a blind eye
But the tears the Iraqi mothers cry
As their children die
Haunt my soul
And Within the silence
I keep replaying the cold
Look in America's eye
As we dine
And watch the bombs fall
And answer an incoming call
As if this war is an entertaining
Unthreatening
New reality show on TV
And my eyes begin to slowly see
How power, pride and moral gluttony
Are turning you and me
Our democracy
Into an economically
Successful red, white, and blue colored
Empire
Where the America I saw in my youth,
Is an America, now only known of within my dreams
Where so much of this country's beauty
Is dying in our passivity
Dying in our ignorance about the cruelty
Being dropped
Onto the innocent
I stare up at the TV and ask the waitress for extra ice
While watching another nameless Iraqi die
