Bystander

As William S. Burrough once said  

“There are no innocent bystanders” 

We never quite understand  

until we have gone through it  

A teenage girl walked peacefully through her town 

running errands  

after an exceedingly long vacation 

letting the sights  

and sounds of her town overwhelm her.

She walked to her first stop 

A photograph shop 

She waited  

And Waited   

Until 

She heard something 

Outside 

She got her pictures and left 

But still curious about what she heard.  

She went to see what it was 

But what she saw  

Horrified her  

A man in a brown shirt  

Beating up an old man 

While a group of twelve or thirteen people 

Just watched  

When the brown shirt left she dove in to help 

And as she helped him, she saw he had a star on his back 

Which meant he was a Jew  

But what the next person said disgusted her 

more than the brownshirt 

No don’t get involved 

Why? She asked 

Why can't you help this man?         

He said two words CONCENTRATION CAMP 

Why?  She thought 

Why should he be treated any differently than me?  

She helped the old man down the street 

until he turned and said 

“I will be all right”  

Years later 

The world is quite different 

But still very much the same  

Still  

People treating different people poorly based on 

racism, bias, and discrimination 

The Jews were different  

So, they hunted them   

Some people have different skin color 

Different beliefs  

Different languages 

And they get hunted 

While people just stand by, watching