Meditation and riff following a close reading of “Let Them Not Say” by Jane Hirshfield.

Let them not say: He did not try.
He tried.

Let them not say: He did not hear.
He heard.

Let them not say: He did not fight.
He fought through noise until he could not hear noise
he could not unhear.

Let them not say: He did not speak up.
He spoke with calloused voice, hoarse finger tips.

Let them not say: He gave up.
He gave a grave — emptiness.

If they must, let them say: 

An incendiary civility.
Immolated.

Let them say meteors
no less than mountains
are beautiful.

Wrapped in static a world away
he bore witness to this white noise nation.