How Can You Picture This

Have you ever seen a sound

heard a feeling
bled a tear

Have you ever seen a woman
200 years old
walking shoeless
on coal hot dirt

bundle on her head
bigger than her

immaculate dress
as a wedding
hanging as a flag
on
stick
thin
poles

all light lost
behind her skeleton teeth

Have you ever seen a dog
laying as dirt
skinny as fleas

Have you ever judged a man
with no legs
on a wheeled board
his arms as oars

the color of his skin
the color of the street

Nobody cares
Nobody stares
Nobody helps
Nobody dares

and another with missing teeth
on his shoulder
a bag
a burden in the dirty heat

going to the temple
past the goats
to the temple

past the water where the mosquitos breed
past the kids playing with the earth
smiling and laughing

past the blind old man
with a single rag for

the only thing that separates us all

clothes

and a stick

past all things
to the temple

for gratitude
for being alive

Have you ever seen yourself from the hearts of a billion people

How can you picture this