There Are No Words

People are doing this
To people, the daily
Butchery, explosions,

Children with missing limbs,
Random executions,
Brutal imprisonments.

People are doing this.
The people doing this
To other people are

People themselves, with all
The usual people
Things—their own families,

Children with intact limbs,
Aspirational dreams,
Plans for building houses.

If you don’t get a grip
On the ordinary
Bodies, minds, hopes, and dreams

Of people destroying
Other people, all those
Violent things you do,

Does anything matter
That you change otherwise?
We are a lot of words

You reach for when you list
The horrors these people
Have done to these people.

We are a lot of words
People use on people.
No words can escape you.