Even As We Sleep

I sit and peer long
into the dark night sometimes
wondering how it is that those of us
who do not live in constant fear
can sleep assured that somehow we will wake
to see the sun rise in the east come morning
even while those who are the hunted
never make it through the night.

Somehow yet, we manage to sleep secure
beneath our blankets, while far across the seas
the Hunters stomp through darkened streets
smashing doors and windows
pulling out the innocents with lies.

Unannounced they come and take them
dragging through the night in terror
locking them away on cold dirt floors
with filth and excrement for their beds
their blood stained garments torn for sheets.

We live so disconnected, and still the nightmares come
horrors traveling across the globe.
We hear of things like this and shake inside.
It looms so dark, this paralysis, this inability
to make it stop

and so we yearn to find that land called Camelot
praying that the visions of their pain will go away,
that somehow God would wield His mighty sword
and slay the merciless, strike them down!

But no, He does not come this night . . .
they scream and we are helpless
knowing that this brutal sin was born with Cain
and someday he could find us too.
Will you and I become the hunted next?

Joanne Cucinello 2011