Whitney Parnell - Green High School

Remembrance

uncommitting homicide
and unexacting genocide
more possible to walk on water
some crimes too heinous,
disgusting, cruel
atonement is unimaginable

the only chance to right a wrong
that stole so many lives
that scarred a nation and a world
is to remember
and to ensure it will never recur
history can be repeated
and mistakes remade unless
we remember

we must do more than read
enough to know what happened
we have to equip ourselves with
knowledge
protection against ignorance
spawning racism and
generating crimes of hate

we cannot assume that
it will not happen in our time
we cannot ignore the signs
that history is repeating
before our very eyes
maybe not in Europe (Africa instead)
maybe not with gas chambers nor
concentration camps
not with Stars of David nor
ghettos with barbed wire
still the senseless deaths of many
and a stain on human history

we have seen what hate can do
what one man can cause
if left unbridled and free to reign
we must quell evil at its source
we cannot appease, allow, or abet
or we resign ourselves to an endless sea of regret