Poignant Realization

If I want to be a General, I must generalize
If I identify with any or too many
I will be weakened and lose my indemnity

I must stay strong and above and not really love
I must see all others as a gene pool, a class, a gender, a mass
Instead of getting to know any of "them", I will collect data
I will see them as chatter
I will cease them as matter, not "to matter"
I will use them as a collective
A collective tool

If I want to buy and sell animals and plants as a commodity
I must not get to really see or know, their uniqueness apart from their rows
It is said plants have an essence
Except for a selected type, I will view others as a nuisance, never seeing nuance

If I want to kill without end, an animal not to befriend
I will erase their differentiation, making identical each copy
In multitudes they will lose meaning
In multitudes they will be harvested
No one will care because not one can stare
Instead a sea or squirming masses is all I see through accountant's glasses

If I am awakened, all I see is the eyes of me and thee
As One not separate through the eyes of a creator not an exterminator
I see myself and the animals in a wonderland of forest, sea or prairie
All the individuals blending uniquely in a tapestry of free
Billowing as a slow motion flag with breeze and beauty
Expansive consciousness holding all, each with a place and call

If I am an Empath, I see and feel all as me, and can understand
Why they may or may not do as they do and do not
When I can zero in on any one or any win
I could not on purpose erase or destroy
Any one lest I deploy
Generalization and disassociation to medicate
The act society or survival dictates
As I slide these parameters
Automatic perspectives change
Changing the reality I see
I might see nothing until I am
Back in focus as a natural part
Not a fringe or deviant
But centrally poignant

Suddenly seeing instead what I didn't want to see
Regarding some others I know and others not known
Who are Generals in this world of ours
But they see us as statistics from actuaries
Paid to see all living things as pins at risk
On a map of seasonal economics and weather
All of which can be seasoned or tempered
By the same generalizing crew
Paid well to examine and accrue
Only knowledge set to self destruct
To come apart and be like us
But to this they can't acknowledge
Deconstructed down to prime components
Refusing to identify with anything of which they are comprised.

-Kelly Voelker

poignant -

• Arousing deep emotion, especially pity or sorrow; touching: synonym: moving.
• keenly distressing to the mind or feelings