We must not forget

The atrocities inflicted on people

Just like us.

 

People with heartbeats

And dreams 

And families.

 

People with fears

And laughter

And worries

And hopes.

 

We must not forget.

Cannot. 

 

For forgetting would be repeating.

Forgetting would be starting all over 

To say that somehow there is a such thing as one person better than another,

Such thing as one person getting to choose when to end another’s life,

When to take away their breath.

Such a thing as one person being allowed to act as God.

 

We must not forget.

Don’t let us.

To forget would be to let the brutality not affect us,

To turn our hearts colder and harden them,

To cover our ears.

 

To forget would be to let go of compassion 

And watch it slip through our fingers.

 

Forgetting is silence, while justice is buried and mocked.

Forgetting is watching while people are butchered 

And wrecked and destroyed like objects instead of the precious humans they are.

 

When we look, there may be little we can do 

To fix a history bent almost beyond repair. 

 

There may be little we can do to heal the hurt 

Of something so indescribably vile, 

So riddled with shards of pain and despair.

 

But we can do one thing.

And we must cling to it

So we’ll be strong enough to speak up when the pattern re-emerges,

When this cycle tries to start again.

 

Remember.