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