The Misery Of Others Poem by RIC BASTASA

there is fun when one talks
about the misery of other people,
there is joy in the realization
that others' miseries are
far greater than yours,
there is this celebration
of lesser pains,
there is this misery in us
in not grieving for the misery
of those whom we have
not known so well,
those whose beatings of the
heart are slowing,

we do not think that we also
slowly die upon the death of
another

we have not seen such link
between our misery and theirs

it is the thin line that divides
the true man from the least of the
the animal kingdom

there is this comfort
that the worm cannot say anything