On Reading the Newspaper
by Joan Weiner

Somewhere in this world an eight-year-old
girl is being being forced to marry,
though her parents know her husband will
rape her and beat her.
Somewhere in this world is a man
who has many wives, given to him
as vessels for his seed by a god
who has told him to people the earth.
Somewhere in this world is a woman
who must cover her entire self
before she can leave her home
because men know she is a temptress
who will set them afire.
Somewhere in this world a woman is being attacked
by a gang of men who rape her with their rifles
to shout their power to the green hills.
Somewhere in this world is a family
driven from their home, huddling
in the dark against the cement of a high wall.
Somewhere in this world lives a man
who possesses such certainty
that he will martyr himself with glee.
Somewhere is a man who has no legs
because he fought in a war designed
by negligent leaders.
Somewhere in this world are two men
whose love for each other
is not sanctified by their neighbors.
Somewhere in this world there is a child
to whom books are forbidden because she is a girl,
a man begging on a roadside for coins
he will use to buy a boozy oblivion,
another who is paid to spew
his bigotry into a microphone.
Somewhere in this world a child
is dying because of an insect bite.
Somewhere in this world are the knowledge
and the riches to scour these ills from the earth,
and somewhere in this world are the witnesses
who will rise up against the liars.

Having just experienced a terrible trauma and tragedy, I think it’s part of my healing to concentrate on some of the injustices and suffering in the world, and to then realize that indeed I am fortunate, even though I am sad and lonely. (1,2)