Guilt.
What a wonderful thing
To feel as though everything is your fault
Even something you know you didn’t do
Something entirely separate from yourself
A crime you didn’t commit
A tragedy you witnessed
But didn’t experience

But I did.
I did experience it
And it doesn’t make sense
How no one noticed
Feigning oblivions
There were dozens of people
Who didn’t notice
Who didn’t care

But also.
It’s my guilt for a person I never knew
A person I never got the chance to know.
Guilt because I could have changed the outcomes
I could have known the person I was before him
And I could have been the last.
Its guilt for the suffering he put them through
The ones I couldn’t save
The ones that he ***** next
Could I have protected the ones I never knew?

Andrew W.
1-27-20