And Then The Howling Stopped

And Then The Howling Stopped

We saw it coming, but it never happens to us,

so we didn’t listen.

It never happens to us.

Until it did.

We thought we’ve seen suffering, we thought we knew disaster.

And then this came.

It came and we listened.

We stayed inside and cried,

Laughed.

We watched crazy rednecks streaming

and put teddy bears in windows and discovered technology we thought we already knew.

We came together when we fell apart.

We came together and we howled; a pack separated.

We howled for the pain, the suffering, the missed parties, graduations, weddings . . .

The doctors and nurses and grocery store employees . . .

We howled for those without homes and those stuck in bad homes . . .

We howled for those who lost their jobs, their houses,

Their Lives.

We howled because the pain was a living force that needed released,

And we did it together.

Nothing is more important than life.

We stayed in for our lives.

We howled for our lives.

We’re in this together. We’re going to be okay.

Wait . . .

Something is more important than life.

Money.

Money is more important

and they need money.

They.

That’s the irony.

Those who need it the most already have it.

They rule,

We follow.

And they need money.

So they take our blood.

“It’s okay, the suffering is over,” they say.

You can come out now.

“The numbers are low, you don’t have to suffer anymore,” they said.

They. The false prophet.

Come out and make your money.

You’re making it for us, they whisper, so low we don’t hear.

And we didn’t.

We didn’t hear and we listened.

We listened because the suffering hurt; it tore us apart.

The irony is that we haven’t seen anything yet.

The suffering is yet to come,

That’s what happens when you listen to false prophets.

We listened.

And then the howling stopped.