Summoning Spirits (poem)

We replay and resurrect
Images sparking emotions
We can only hold on to
En masse
On anniversaries
With the prodding of the media
Telling us
What we remember feeling
Only when reminded

Summoning spirits from their rest

Parading with the flags
Marching in lockstep
To a drummer
Beating out
A dirge
Instead of a requiem
Sung
In exultation of the lives lived
The love given
The love received

We raise the flag and raise the dead
In an orgy of adversarial rancor
Accusations cast like confetti
across the airwaves

It's not that we don't feel
It's not that they don't deserve
remembrance

It's that
this
is
not
even
close
To what anyone deserves

Self-congratulation and recrimination
The opposition and imposition
of politics
on grief

We mourn
Interrupted
We mourn
Endlessly
We mourn

We can remember for ourselves
Mourning and lifting up the memories
Of the unavenged dead

We can stop summoning their shades
To generate rage
To encapsulate fear
Like a pill to be swallowed

We can raise them up
And set them free

Separately
Together

Without
The machinations
Of
History

Humanity needs no more martyrs