Your Neighbor or Mine?

Blog 287:

Next door a faint, yet distinct voice cries
It pleads from a shadowy dungeon of oppression:
“Take me out of this wrenching misery!”

 

Days come and go
A decade passes
The feeble, whimpering voice presses, but goes unheard

It simmers more …
It gets distant …
It is muffled and drowned by mindless chattering voices

Nearby, doors and windows open and shut
Familiar faces ignore neighbors’ comings or goings
In vacuum, pleasantries are exchanged in between
But the core of uttered words holds no water

It is through stealthy circumstances as such …
Under neighbors communing in isolation
Darkest of evils holds fanfare, I think
And right there, right at one another’s oblivious watch
In broad daylight, crime unleashes its reins
Right there as neighbors coldly shrugged shoulders

Of late, so we heard 
Three souls in prime of youth
Get blatantly abducted … held hostage
Their innocent lives immobilized … shamed …
And incognito, evil souls succeed
In hiding their crimes against humanity

 

On Sabbath day, I heard a preacher tell
Of a man in want of immortal existence:
“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit it?”
The teacher thought, then masterfully replied,
“Love your God with all your heart, soul and strength;
And remember to love your neighbor as yourself.”
 
The perplexed man heard
Yet again he posed, “Who is my neighbor?”

Next door a faint, yet distinct voice cries
It pleads from a shadowy dungeon of oppression!

Is the faint, crying voice your neighbor or mine?