Capable hands hold a rifle.
Capable hands hold a pen.
Capable minds can do both.
So why isn’t peace possible?
These thoughts trouble me
and steal my sleep,
as I lay in my first world bed,
listen to the soft breath of my partner,
fresh from an evening shower,
sated by my first world meal,
comfortable after medication
to ease my first world knee injury.
In my first world life
I cannot know the pain
of losing a partner,
of forgetting the taste of fresh food,
of sleeping on sack cloth,
of not knowing the feeling
of having clean hair and clothes,
and not having a bandage to stop the bleeding.
I cannot know this pain,
from here in my first world –
but i can know it is wrong.