A free-verse poem examining whether one death in a large population matters. |
A young boy playing in his backyard finds a dead sparrow. His father says, “Since there are so many sparrows flying around, what does it matter?” Driving to the store, a teenager sees a dog run over and killed crossing the street. She thinks, ‘So many dogs are euthanized by the local pound yearly, what does this one dog’s death matter?’ A tourist in Africa watches a cheetah chase and bring down a Thomson’s gazelle. His guide says, “These gazelles are the most plentiful in all of Africa. What does one’s dying matter?” The couch potato sees a late-night solicitation on TV for donations to save a South American child from dying from slow starvation. She says to her husband, “The world is already overpopulated. What does a few more poverty-stricken children dying really matter?” With tears running down his cheeks, the young boy gently picks up the dead, limp sparrow in his backyard and replies to his father, “It mattered a whole lot to this poor sparrow.” Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |