Inoculate

compassion SmadarHalperinEpshtein

Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein

 

It can spread.

It can blight.

It can seek a new host

To infect

With malaise.

But the ill

Need not creep

Onto me

Onto thy.

We can rise

Above rudeness.

Inoculate

Against hate.

We can choose to

Remain

Stubbornly

Humane.

 

 

For The Daily Post

Higher Ground

sky is the limit

Photo: Osnat Halperin-Barlev

 

When some try to

Evoke

Vile contempt

Foul report,

There is much more

At stake

Than a furious

Retort.

Don’t fall prey

To miasmas of

Hate and closed minds.

Do not let lower standards

Become somehow enshrined.

Call it out.

Name it loud.

But refuse the dishonorable

As normed or allowed.

Choose to level

Above.

Give a hand.

Hold on tight.

To a firm

Higher ground.

 

 

 

 

For The Daily Post

Voguish

181518_1759638383526_5430078_n

Photo: Narcissus

 

It may be fashionable to be unkind,

To dismiss civility as weak

And see polite discourse

As reflecting ‘snowflake’ fragility.

One wonders, though,

About the price of bullish ways

On our children

Who are learning

Not what we say

But what we model.

Will they grow to celebrate insult

As denoting power,

And be enthused

By pseudo-charm;

Or will they see

The true resilience of empathy

So hate and war

Can finally be

Disarmed?

 

 

For The Daily Post