"From the depths
of the mirror,
a corpse gazed back at me.
The look in his eyes, as they stared
into mine, has never left me."
Closing the book I looked at the cover,
Night by Elie Wiesel. Averting my eyes
from the book to my teacher, she stares
at the class in profound silence, then she says,
"There's something very similar happening in America
today." I was shocked, I couldn't believe it took me until
middle school to hear about this. My ears perked up in morbid
curiosity as the other students nodded making me feel like a *******
"Abortion." the teacher stated with lofty arrogance as I breathed a sigh of relief
encouraged by the banality of right wing indoctrination replacing revelation
of more senseless slaughter. I didn't watch Fox News, I didn't know I was
supposed to hate abortion and Dr. Tiller; that's where Elie Wiesel and
teacher come in. Elie Wiesel wrote a book that makes people want
to change the world, my teacher narrowed it down to the target
in her crosshairs. Tiller died a few years later, Wiesel died
several years after that. My old middle school teacher
is still alive using books of the dead to demonize the
living for demanding demonetizing democracy
until malleable minds are mangled
shifting their forming mentality
into one as narrow as hers.
Sep 30, 2020
Sep 30, 2020 at 9:18 AM UTC
"From the depths
of the mirror,
a corpse gazed back at me.
The look in his eyes, as they stared
into mine, has never left me."
Closing the book I looked at the cover,
Night by Elie Wiesel. Averting my eyes
from the book to my teacher, she stares
at the class in profound silence, then she says,
"There's something very similar happening in America
today." I was shocked, I couldn't believe it took me until
middle school to hear about this. My ears perked up in morbid
curiosity as the other students nodded making me feel like a *******
"Abortion." the teacher stated with lofty arrogance as I breathed a sigh of relief
encouraged by the banality of right wing indoctrination replacing revelation
of more senseless slaughter. I didn't watch Fox News, I didn't know I was
supposed to hate abortion and Dr. Tiller; that's where Elie Wiesel and
teacher come in. Elie Wiesel wrote a book that makes people want
to change the world, my teacher narrowed it down to the target
in her crosshairs. Tiller died a few years later, Wiesel died
several years after that. My old middle school teacher
is still alive using books of the dead to demonize the
living for demanding demonetizing democracy
until malleable minds are mangled
shifting their forming mentality
into one as narrow as hers.
Request permission to use this poem