The Battle’s Never Buried with Its Slain

It is not a pleasant death,
This way of being human

At Gettysburg, or inside
Extraction systems, or in

Cultural Revolution.
Struggles have minds of their own,

And bodies only fuel them.
When inventing compassion,

Thoughts created the exact
Antonym of compassion,

Because that’s what thoughts will do.
Before thought, there is neither;

After thought, grace and torture.
Each sweet name bears its demons,

And mercy’s only mercy
Is that thought’s worst birth angels.

Know, when your thoughts slay others’,
Bodies will end as fodder,

Even though your thoughts seemed kind
When you met them in your mind.