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We will forget

WE WILL FORGET
We will forget
Because we are wired to default to forget mode
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We put it all behind us
The pain, if it’s ours, will be buried
Day by day we will salve it with whatever balm we can
Because to remember is too painful
For those who can’t forget there is only darkness
Hope fades as the pain swallows them up
Those who do not survive, fall with their faces to the foe
Those who do are never again true of eye, neither steady nor aglow
We will forget
Because, while men are consumed with greed and prejudice and hatred
We will forget
The sunken cheeks, the naked bodies stripped of dignity
As long as it isn’t us
We will forget
We will move on as quickly as we can to the next thing
So that we WILL forget
We will forget the images of
War
Famine
Disease
Drought
Corruption
Genocide
Because as long as it doesn’t touch us, we will forget
No matter how many red poppies grow in Flanders fields
No matter how many paper poppies we proudly pin to our unpunished chests
We will forget
We will shoot and maim and kill
Until there is nothing left
To shoot and maim and kill
We will listen to the bugle
Tear rolling down carefully manicured cheek
But we will forget
Where is your glory?
Where are your heroes?
Doctors, teachers, nurses
Those who do not fight for frontiers
Those who fight tirelessly in places we’ve never heard of
Like Flanders
Maybe
I only know of Flanders because you remind me
Remind me not to forget
Yemen
Iraq
Somalia
Sudan
Phillipines
The Cape Flats …


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