Tragedy

Tragedies come in many forms
Whether bulky or miniature in scale
They come to us through the evening news
Or through a neighbor’s juicy tale

Their shapes and lines are not the same
The edges may be downy or rough
Those involved can be numerous or only one…
a person screaming that this is enough.

There are tragedies that are evident-
If a child is damaged or harmed
By a brutal hand that strips from them
Their knowledge of trust and warmth

Tragedy is obvious when a child is left,
Abandoned by a vile occurrence
By a drunk driver that killed his parents
And all of the resulting circumstances.

When there is hunger in somebody eyes
Not for candy or something sweet
But for actual nourishing food do they search
Because they have only eaten bread for a week

When bellies are swollen in lands that seem far
Or medicine is unavailable to treat them
When people live without the things that we have
We are quick to see misfortune and feel pity for them

We call it a tragedy when scores are affected
By a plane crash, a hurricane, or a devastating fire
Whether resulting from terrorists or from carelessness
The calamity brings people outside to rebuild lives

But, what of the tragedies that occur each day
That people do not often speak of
What of the quiet and subtle things?
Those destroy things that dreams are built of

What of the man who allows his life
To be swallowed in pursuit of some dream
While never realizing that the ingredients for success
Reside within the boundaries of him

What of the woman who sits and thinks
That she is beings supporting and sacrificing
Never seeing that what she is building each day
Is a lesson of inadequacy to a child’s eyes



There is the tragedy of the child under the stairs
Who watches his mommy shudder and cry
As daddy comes home full of infidelity dreams
Mommy dries her tears and plasters on a smile

Perhaps the tragedy could be in a mother
Who never allows her children to learn
Not realizing that each time she fixes what is amiss
That she tears a piece from their sense of self-worth

That same mother may have a husband who patiently waits
For the day she will realize he is there and perceive him
And wretchedly that day never arrives
Until following his funeral she begins to glimpse her sins

What of those who lead unskillful lives
Never trying to cultivate their traditions
Being sublimely unconscious of the wreckage-
Who said that ignorance was bliss?

One might see tragedy in the life of almost
In the one who never gets off their seat
Someone who lets their body break down
Until it harbors disorder and disease

Or one could see the tragedy in a life
That never learned to slow down and be tranquil
Never finding the glory and splendor that is present
Presented only when the audience hushes and is still

What of the musician, writer, technician or athlete
Who has a passion and a gift for the craft
Yet never finds the ambition to look around and create
Or to use fervor to forge their own passage

The tragedies in other countries and on nightly news blurbs
Are worthy of attention and discussions on change
But how can people expect to influence peripheral things
While disregarding the tragedies going on in their veins