                           Armor


All my life the world has been getting smaller:  
Far-off lands that were once the stuff of legend
Are now a mouse click away.  
In a way that's wonderful.  

But in a way it isn't.  
For all that we have shrunk the world's distances
We have not shrunk the world's pain.  
A whole wide world of suffering and despair
Comes into our living rooms every day, 
Film at eleven.  
How can any sane person stand it? 

One word:  Armor.  

I go clanking through my day like some denizen of the Round Table, 
My visor showing me the narrowest slices of the darkness without
As I strive to keep some flame of humanity burning within.  

But I am still afraid: 
Someday, when I gather with my friends in some safe space
And we decide to open ourselves to one another, 
We may find that our armor has long been empty.  


                              -- Tom Digby
                              Written 17:05 Sat January 1 2005
                              Revised 16:18 Fri January 7 2005
