Kneel at the feet of the searing, 

Withered and flattened

World,

O my Country!

Take your Penance 

And Swallow it.

Ask the Kurds 

And the Yemenis

And Nigerians and

All those others with 

Brown hair and dark eyes

Ask the Mothers and Fathers 

Across the World,

Ask ALL of THEM to

Forgive you.

Forgive you for the horrors 

You have Shoveled upon THEM

Like huge, burning COALS

And the ruin you have made of 

Their Children’s Futures.

Then, only then,

Crying and rending 

Your Clothes—

Take all you have taken

And all you have given to

Those you have Enslaved,

Endangered, Injected, Orphaned,

And Killed in Any Way or Another with

Your Brutalities , your False Oaths,

Your Robberies and your Refusals

And YOU will have given 

One one-hundred Trillionth of 

What YOU owe.

But it will NOT be ENOUGH.

Keep Giving and Wailing and 

Gnashing your teeth.

Stop ONLY,

Pause ONLY, to

Tell your Children

The Why, and the How

And the Truth

You are Accounting for.

Because you may NEVER,

(Know this for CERTAIN)

EVER, account for all 

You have Done in 

Scalding the Earth and 

Piercing the HEART of 

Every NATION, 

Every OCEAN,

Every TRIBE,

Every RIVER

Every NEIGHBOR,

Every FOREST 

EVERY INDIVIDUAL

EVERY inch of AIR and SPACE, 

When all they asked was

To LIVE to LOVE, to DIE, to BE

In PEACE.