"Windows" (Poem) (Written as a Spoken Word poem)

So I took a walk today
Cause I kind of wanted to hear
What nature had to say
When it whispered in my ear
 
And I walked past all these houses
With their windows opened wide
Hearing snippets of the stories
Of the lives that lived inside

And there was someone wailing
Through tears of love just lost
And someone else regaling
Of a deed at someone’s cost
 
I heard an old man’s TV
With the volume turned up loud
And a little girl excited
About a grade that made her proud
 
There was a couple yelling
And some friends all singing songs
So many different dwellings
And so many rights and wrongs
 
And I passed these everyday windows
On this everyday kind of block
And felt a line of history
Like a time machine’s dashboard clock
 
Where life goes on around us
Veering up and out and down
Shoulders often heavy  
Spirits weighted toward the ground   
 
Cause we all have our own life
With stories gone untold
And judging can’t do justice
To the emotional black hole
 
That we all go through at times
As we crawl towards evening’s end
And find the strength within us
For the will to rise again
Empathy though, is a star
In the darkest sky of night
It burns a point we can’t un-see
And lets us see the light
 
That we’re all in this together
And there is no “I” in “we”
But if I want there to be changes
It has to start with me
 
And I wish that we could all come
To agreement on the point
That we’re each an equal dot in life
And no one should anoint
 
Themselves as more important
Or somehow more elite
Than any other one of us
Living on that street
 
We don’t have the right to look down
Upon Anyone else’s fate
To laugh at someone’s misery
Or spread the thread of hate
 
Cause everyone’s got hardships
And burdens they must bear
That can get to be so heavy
That they’re really not aware
 
Of any needs but their own in life
And that should be okay
To give them space and grant them grace
Will lift you up one day
 
You never know, when someone’s hurting
Or the sorrows that they hide
Unless you walk on past their open
Window’s other side
 
And crazy things may happen
When it comes to human pride
And faking gain to hide the pain
Of spirit having died
Is just a way that we continue
On in sweet refrain
While cloaking all our inner tears
And hiding all our pain
 
Look….. there’s a million different lifetimes and a million different lifelines
And no one’s got a copyright on pain
So when you see a face, masked with ease and grace
Don’t think that person hasn’t walked in rain
 
Everyone has a story
Told a thousand different ways
The masks they wear to hide their tears
Protects them from our gaze
 
So we see their false façade
Painted brightly for our eyes
And hidden from our conscience
Is the sound of silent cries
 
Always know those open windows
Could be mirrors staring back
And if our fates were flipped and successes slipped
Would the empathy that we lack
 
Feel just as good as we do
When there’s no cause to even blink
Cause if it feels dark and hollow
Then maybe we should think
 
Twice on how we judge
someone else’s movie script
cause it doesn’t take much to take a fall
and wonder where we slipped
 
And if that thought should give you cause
To take a pause and let it sink
Then maybe we should also
Take a pause so we can think
 
That we could be our neighbors
If justice tipped its’ scale
So open up and let ‘em in
Cause you don’t know their tale
 
Know they have a story
Through windows gone untold
Of anger’s waste and heartaches taste,
Of ages young and old
 
We’re only here this moment
And no one’s without sin
So open your hearts, and your minds
And let your neighbors in.
 

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