FOCUS

- It's a newspaper that I wrote a story for

I'm hoping to get published but I received a pretty generic e-mail after I sent it to the paper. Something like Excellent Jess and thanks at the end. Could of been a load of bullshit, but what do I know? I'm writing a poem too, but haven't been able to get around to finishing it. Here are the pieces:

What if…there had been more like him?

A lone man to defend a broken country.
A strong man,
buried beneath the weight of eight hundred thousand bodies.
Bodies of men, women and children.
Bodies of innocents that had their freedom slashed away.
He was Force Commander,
yet his pleas were muffled by the fog of hatred.
Ignored even.
Until it was too late to be sorry.
His troops were ordered not to shoot.
All he could do was shake hands with the devil.
Condemn him for your mistake.
At least he had the guts to act.
It’s not in our interest.
It’s not in anyone’s interest.
Say that to the child who hid under bodies,
holding her mother’s cold, blood-spattered hand.
She waited for the bad men to go away.
Waited for them to kill her entire village
so she could leave that sacred place.
A church filled with blood.
It’s not in our interest.
We saw those images.
The images of genocide.
We asked ourselves what we could do.
And as we pondered,
Deliberated
Contemplated
Studied
Forgot
The genocide continued.
And that one man didn’t forget.
He couldn’t forget.
The general could only watch as day after day
the light returned to the dark streets.
The light still could not warm as it promised.
It was just another day filled with broken promises and hopes.
Another added to the 100 days of genocide.
Everyday filled with the prospect of being one day closer
to being saved.
But, little did they know that after we had spent our time
Pondering
Deliberating
Contemplating
Studying
Forgetting
We had also wasted their time, watching them die.
If only there had been more men like him.
What if?
We could only waste more time asking.
Time that could be used to find more strong people.
Time that could be used to speak for those who had their voices taken away.
Time that could be used to discover the end of preventable suffering.
Time that could be used to realize that if we only focus on the if’s then
we are just walking backwards,
tripping over bodies and passing all those strong people
who did all that they could.
Even if they were forced to look into the devil’s eyes and make a deal.
Looked into his bleeding eyes as the whole world watched from their couches
and shook their heads, muttering words of pity.
As the strong shook hands with the devil.