Shame

I utter the word ‘hello,’
And reddened in the face
You look away
Hands in pockets
Lips a tight line
Containing a smirk
That’s for me, only mine

I know not what was said or done
But your embarrassment is palpable
I guess, I must be in the wrong
Later it will come to light
The tone of my voice wasn’t right
Or the way I stood or looked down
Or it was the way words sound
When coming out of my mouth

And the bashfulness on your face
Communicates to everyone
And like a virus it infects them all
Permeates the air
And I become
The cigarette end of jokes

And I, left in the ruins
Become the ash
Greyed and cemented
Into shame

High horses

They saddle up on their high horses
And frown on us
Cause they think they know
The Man
And they don’t see the blood
On their hands
‘Cause they think
The Man will understand

And they preach that when
the man comes around
We’ll be the gallows rumour
Suspended over the gallows humour
Burning feet first
For all the blessings cursed
And every prayer is just rehearsal
For when the flames immerse us

Upon their high horses
They will frown upon us…

Cause they think they know
The man

©Silverbackgorillapoetry 2016 July

 

Gorilla thinks about humans

4444476398_ce3bc30f7d

Humans don’t always treat other animals too well, and they most certainly don’t always treat other humans too well.

But consider, if you saw an anomaly in another animal that rarely would you judge it and damn it to hell. You may think the animal is filthy, you may think they’re ugly, but you wouldn’t judge it as harshly as you would if it was a human. You’d just say that he or she is ‘one of a kind’ he or she is a ‘rarity’ in this species. But you won’t necessarily afford the same acceptance to another human with a similar or the same anomaly.

Ponder that for a moment.

It’s not just other non-human animals that you can learn from, you can also learn from how you treat animals.

There is a reason psychopaths commonly abuse animals. The care for no living thing on this planet, human or otherwise.

In religion you haven’t found modesty, you’ve found a pedestal.