Empathy will kill you
when bearing witness to sickness
becomes too much
no detachment
no cold analytical approach
can deaden the impact
the willful infliction of pain and torment
the destruction of dignity
faced with a flood of our lowest moments
the unenviable task
to rescue the past from the silence
of impending mortal ends
one victim after another choking out their recollections
diffusing the shadows
obscuring our darkest corners
did it become too much?
the naked face of ruined humanity
that evil in men's hearts
to poison all your hopes?
a family left to question
a life over burdened by the ghosts
of those murdered and mutilated