The Good Men Do Nothing.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

when the beetle is smashed
as the child leaves to another game of his
i get a stone and mark another violence
where no one is punished for beetles are just beetles
and children are merely children,

i always have a stone to mark an unforgettable story
wherever i go

it is always a story of a crime unsolved, a violence without cause,
another story of a crime which get laid and paid.

even within our family circle, i also have stones.

stones which i do not throw at anybody who committed the offense
a blunder an injustice against man committed by his fellowman

i have never thrown any stone at them
i only bury them in utter silence, as markers for me to remember


that somehow i too have committed this common mistake
of simply gazing

doing nothing and then somehow move on
either with a guilty conscience or this sense of helplessness

the biggest sin for all those other good men
who did nothing.