who are they to you?
a scapegoat
here to receive what
you didn't want,
here to accept the blame
they never wanted to claim,
the blame that wasn't theirs to begin with.

To you they aren't heard,
they aren't seen,
they aren't believed.
they are but a flicker of thought
that was forgotten beyond
      incapacitated dwellings.

They are solely to blame
for the misfortunes of others.
if you listen you may hear them,
you may not. their pleas,
their bargains of terms remain
embedded in history. Their identities are
      vaguely regarded.

They are rich with hope,
with pleas that
ring foreign to your ears.

What are they to you?
they are what you need
to feel moral.
they are who you blame
and for tendrils of time;
they remain that way.