I saw the true face of humanity–
Masses gathering, phones alight,
Recording, photographing the scene,
Loudly, excitedly chattering about
The tragedy that erupted around
10:30 p.m. that dreadful Wednesday
Night, but my ears nor eyes caught
A single person asking if everyone
Involved was okay, if they had survived
On that dreadful Wednesday
Night when I stepped into the living room,
Saw my wife with her ear to the open
Window, curtain trembling with the late-
-August breeze, summoning me to come,
Listen to the popping, a sound that fell to
Our ears as indistinguishable between
Fireworks and the gunshots someone
In the neighborhood sent crackling
Into the sky on random nights such as these,
And as we opened our front door to witness
The whoosh of flame from several doors
Down, popping turning to explosions,
A fire raging from a neighbor’s home,
A question of why the police, fire department
Hasn’t yet shown-up, if anyone has called them,
And shadowy visions of my wife immediately
On her phone to
Report the grisly scene, police, the local
Fire department showing up minutes later,
The face of humanity beginning to morph
From ghoulish to promising and back again
As hopelessness sets in, rises, wafts
Like the all-consuming flames, the reminder
Of how swiftly all we have and all we have
Worked our lives for could be taken from us
By a terrible accident, an act from the
Undiscerning hand of fate as I, too,
Stop, stare, horrified, wordless, sickness
Twisting in my gut, feeling the anxiety that
Would captivate my fleeting slumber that night,
I recognize that, I too, carry the alternately
Sad, hideous, and occasionally uplifting
Mask of our collective actions—
I, too, am the face of humanity.