November 5: Acclimatize

 You could say that we acclimatize

when we acquiesce to, say, shootings

and don't react when maybe one child dies

and a dozen are wounded: why?

Small fries. It sits in the shade of a Columbine

or an Uvalde so barely a dent

in our newfound capacity to accept

human death. 

A Katrina is a several months or years 

notice: though the wreckage in human time

for proximate humans still endures

and a Maria? Seems forgotten in less 

because something in horror inures

one to horror. And so now,

an Otis can barely signify. 

See--we mentally acclimatize,

and can ignore

that a Category 5 can now sneak up

on a shore before an evacuation can even proceed

and a Cat 4 or less could wipe out

a community steeped in need. 

We don't bat an eye. 

Like we shut out Rohingya or Uygurs or the Congo or Sudan.

Everything becomes an also-ran

until it runs down your street.

And maybe even by then, it still won't compete. 

We tell ourselves comforting lies.

Open your eyes.

Refuse to acclimatize.