A Reaction

Life's Emotions

What ifs, hows, questions, all tremble in your soul. Your twitches and squirms, your trepidation and heavy breathing, mimics that of a first grader watching the Twilight Zone. But you know you are in control, for you can always put down the horror novel. You do not need to look up and see the tower of skulls which awaits your raised head. You close your eyes to this imagined picture and reopen them expecting to see the ordinariness of everyday life. But you don't. A tower of broken heads, missing teeth, torn cloth, all lay in front of you. The killing has occurred and cannot be forgotten. Tears hug your eyes. You look out hoping to see a field of flowers. The regrowth of life. But what lies under your feet is cracked mud, withering with each year.

Humanity's sins mark this Earth, with even nature failing to remedy the situation. And then, you see it. Beautiful bracelets, some lone colored, some multicolored, intricate and simple, singular, and woven together, laying with one another. A blanket of love, a string of respect for those gone, a covering of goodness, all heal this hurt land.

The world, people, families have been branded with the horrifics of humanity. But underneath that stamp, the roots of love and hope remain growing stronger every day. Unable to be uprooted, residing far below the flesh, passion, belief, heart, humanities constants live on.

A Reaction to a killing field near Phnom Penh, Cambodia.