so the winter solstice

passed over our collective bodies again
     leaving scars from the year
of the snake
who will witness
even in the darkness of the longest night
the death of thousands
     by war      starvation      disease
from the hand of one abuser
     there's the enabling of another
from an empty vault
there's no space for empathy
     recurring cries of the evicted
     are dismissed in the silence
          of the noise

--- e b bortz