When trauma lays bare a soul and its body,
Is it immoral to contemplate the offender?
Is it sinful to wonder about the pain maker’s pain,
To imagine they too may be or have been victimized?

Is this current cruelty an echo of inner torment,
Suffered years before this current victim was born?
Does this most terrible and pain-filled assault,
Signal heartbreak still lives, breathes, waits…

Even with tremendous resolve and determination,
To overlook the damage, the fear, the shame; pain festers.
Until at once the past is awakened, a dormant rage freed,
To claim another innocent into the trail of trauma.

Does a victim in anguish or transgressor in dishonor,
Receive nurture or forgiveness in the human milieu?
Could humankind be akin with trees, oceans, moths, birds,
Be merciful, forgive, love the sinner but not the sin?