Compassion Fatigue

I throw away the new calendar

from Amnesty International.

But I love the ones from Audubon,

Sierra Club,

the World Wildlife Fund.

I spend happy moments

looking at flamingos,

moose calves,

the magnificent flukes of diving orcas.

 

The people on the Amnesty International calendar

don’t smile,

caught between

razor wire

and torture,

villages burnt,

possessions smashed,

daughters abducted.

All they want is justice,

and that’s not cute.