We have lost contact

with faces,

faces of flesh that

smile,

frown,

cry,

stare,

grimace

and do all the other

expert things with muscles

that we encounter whole

that reveal the

trembling tender

person beneath.

 

We now see but images

disembodied thus static

and controllable,

ones that don’t require

a moral response

and an empathy

that come with seeing

a fleshly human face and

thus a human soul

in all its dimensions.

 

We have lost contact

and thus we can afford

to be cruel,

for the image and

the presence of the

disembodied soul is

a thing or a number

as expendable as

yesterday’s news.

 

27/12/2016