The dictionary defines humanity as benevolence
Compassion
Kindness
Tolerance
The word, humanity sends up sprays of rainbows after it conquers the rain and coaxes the bashful sun back out
It’s the last to take flight in Pandora’s box
The first to latch onto our hearts when Tragedy swoops in and delivers a coup de grâce, eyes blazing with destruction
It’s the equivalent of a panacea
It mends the open sores and scars of the wounded
Duct tapes broken hearts and superglues friendship
The word sketches images of us, coexisting together under the sun
It brushes strokes onto the tidal waves of gratitude and appreciation for the mundane
Humanity can be compared to a resplendent, vivid canvas hung on a wall for all to admire
Or should I say, it could have been
Because frankly, the letters, H-U-M-A and N does not belong anywhere in humanity anymore
There is no humanity in humans
We’ve tainted the word beyond recognition
We’ve washed it brown with the dirt crammed under the haggard fingernails of those suffering in poverty
Grey with the blades used to plunge through skin and extinguish the soul
Blue with the people who exist without really living; drowning in oxygen yet still here
We’ve doused humanity in red with the blood of people who don’t deserve to die
And purple with the bruises left on the ones still alive
Humans don’t have an ounce of humanity left in our systems
What with the cold shoulders we lend one another and the way we only see the world in black and white-
And green, if you know what I mean
We now live in a world
Where parents microwave their infants
Where love ends too often with a visit from Death
Where our values are placed on all the wrong things
Where the human body is treated like a dog’s chew toy,
Where bullying is alive
Like a virus, searching for victims to infect and kill
And the people who can stop it, don’t
Because of the fear of being touched by the dirtied hands of experienced tormentors when we, ourselves, are impure
There is no humanity in humans