'Right now - someone, somewhere, is being tortured...'

“About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood 

Its human position; how it takes place 

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just 

walking dully along...” - From 'Musée des Beaux Arts', by W.H. Auden

Right now - someone, somewhere

(Someone's sister, brother, cousin...),

Is being tortured, murdered, or raped.

And, right now, snug in my safe space

I can honestly - and quite easily - see that.

Why lie to myself?

Indeed I can see it right now.

I can see that someone, somewhere,

Is being tortured, murdered, or raped.

Someone like me. Or not like me.

Someone like you. Or not like you.

I shan't think of it for long.

Why bother?

He's not me.

He's neither a friend nor a relation.

Not even an irrelevant neighbour.

But, still, it's a dirty fact

I neither need nor want to face.

Yet that torture, murder or rape

Is still happening, right now,

To someone,

Somewhere.

Someone like me. Or not like me.

Someone like you. Or not like you.