People whisper their pain, and we choose not to hear it.

People plead their pain, and we divert our gaze.

People speak their pain, and we drown them out with other noise.

People cry their pain, and we say we don’t understand them.

People scream their pain, and we tell them they are too angry for us to hear.

People scream their pain, and we walk by faster.

People scream their pain, and we tell them it was worth it to achieve some goal.

People scream their pain, and we plug our ears.

People scream their pain, and we tell them to be silent.

People scream their pain, and we silence them however we need to.

People stop screaming.

We tell ourselves it was all worth it. We forget anybody was ever screaming. We tell ourselves nobody was ever in pain. We tell ourselves we are noble and just.

We move onward, never looking back.

We move onward but never forward.

Photo courtesy of Unsplash license by Molly Blackbird.