witnessing some

by Roberto Lavidez

some are in prison

some run

to another country

some are still roaming

the streets with blood

in their hands

some of them are

rewarded with 

petty spoils for

each head

some local authorities

profited from 

massacres

seizing slain people’s

land and possessions

some are hiding weapons

some new recruits

are being trained

some regimes 

are unlikely

to stop atrocities

some policies 

are aimed at the 

systematic destruction

of a people

some militias engage

in pure criminal activities

some rebels 

fabricate things

some revolution 

is simply replacing 

one type of

oppressive regime

with another

some revolutionaries

mimic the abuses 

against which 

they rebelled

some aid workers 

and church leaders 

are accused

of complicity in some

state-sponsored terror

some neighbors

slaughtered their neighbors

some colleagues 

bludgeoned their colleagues

some doctors poisoned 

their patients

some schoolteachers

maimed their students

some priests burned 

their parishioners

some fathers stabbed their

wives and children

some witnesses survived

to identify their attackers

at the trial

some mass murderers are

acquitted and released  

some survivors

will remember

some will forget

some will deny

it ever happened

©robertolavidez2013