Quake

I stand transfixed
Amidst the wars and horror
watching daily this
   flight for life, this
       fight for free
  All hell breaks loose
    so different, yet
      not so, 
as we count in thousands
 those innocents fallen.

How does one suffer?
  with all abundance
squandered for the good life
we wrap our shame in 'God's blessing'
and write our checks in His name.

This is so fleeting
  these days of plenty
    this act of we the right
Complacent in our apathy
     we've grown numb 
      while the hurt of humanity
  plays out on our screens,
    we gasp our displeasure,
       we squeeze out a tear.


For it is not us.

We are the chosen
beloved and coddled
 living off the land of the free
   sheltered, somnolent
in these hours of need
  for death does not knock
     on all doors the same

And we are safe once more.