By Emma Jessen

Fish
on the pavement,
eyes startled, tail thrashing.
one walks by, others follow,
all looking, noticing, considering, not bothering.
a small boy’s scream splinters the silence,
a flickering note swallowed by the crowd’s indifference.
he pleads for his mother’s help,
but she drags him away,
their shared terror choked down.
the crowd approves their retreat,
the bustle resumes,
devouring kindness with mouths of apathy -
in a world that chooses death over disturbance.
humanity is
Drowned.