When fingers are frozen
with too-tight a grip on the trigger,
and hearts are so cold
that their over-heated words
freeze others’ tongues,
can their ice-blocked minds
ever be thawed?
Have they become mere automatons
unable to think an errant thought,
icily convinced they are always
right?
Are their minds no longer their own?
Are they so frozen in fear,
so brittlely certain that they are in danger
of reason breaking into hard shards?
“Who are these people?” is not
an uncommon question, nor
one of personal identity.
It questions if they are indeed
part of humanity.
The true question must be
“Are they human?”.
For those still warm enough to reason,
to progress, to change, to love
that question is what we really fear.
For, if they could lose their humanity,
might not we?
Has humanity chosen self-immolation
in an over-heated fossil-fueled world?
It is a choice within every nation.
Elections matter in a time like this.
Voting is an act of creation.
