HOLLOW COST

I've wrestled with this one for almost 20 years... it came from the phrase that is the title.... something one of my students said in passing, and without reference to what happened in Germany.

HOLLOW COST

The Holocaust was real

ask Abel’s brother when it began.

Hollow people casting about

looking for hollow answers

to insipid questions,

preferring a lie to the truth.

A dark comedy played out

in the broken, dying jungle,

storming hearth and home

till I grow weary of refusing

to pay the hollow cost to

voices that whine and cry

about the injustice of it all.

People who hate

the people who hate;

Who will be first against the wall?

Or herded to a chamber for those

who didn’t hate enough?

I wonder about joy

lost on purpose by mindless

masses in line to pay the voices

selling modern indulgences

on which to grind the ax of hate

and pay the hollow cost.

The Holocaust is old and wise

and young and strong,

muscles rippling with

homosexuals who hate men

who hate homosexuals,

Arabs who hate Jews

who hate them back

and whites who hate blacks

who hate the injustice of it all;

but justice got nailed to a tree

for all of that.

in a battle we love to hate.

Reviews

[Lorry]

An excellent piece here Vol. There was enough hate around at the time to keep it all going and hate begat hate, I'm sure something biblical once said. It almost becomes acceptable to hate the hate, without seeing the individuals who everyone sees as victims of that hate, but few go to the bother of learning anything but the hate from it.
I remember my old modern studies teacher, a pole who made it all more than real when he got angry one day at someone laughing in class and rolled up his shirt sleeve to show a numbered tattoo, asking him what was funny about that!
Nothing was the consensus, a we all sat up a little more straight, as our very own walking textbook went on to improve the entire classes grades, just by being a little piece of personal history that no textbook could ever get our attention in quite the same way.
I'm sure he would have approved of your title and wordplay, that brings something as incomprehensible as what had happened, more into the realms of what we can comprehend easier than the millions of deaths being just numbers and not individuals, which each one of them were.

[Vol]

Lorry,
Thank you for the thoughtful review. My father and three uncles were all in the Pacific during the war, so, outside my emotional connection with that part of the war is more real. But the pictures, histories and documentaries bring home the reality of what happened and is still so real. On the larger stage, I wonder what that whole era says about Western Civilization and the Karma we have built. We don't think of ourselves as brutal conquerors who subjugated a vast part of the world as our "Manifest Destiny. And, at my advanced age, I have yet to see evidence that we have changed for the better. Of course, The rest of the world seems poised for payback time. Brings to mind the Irish curse, 'May you live in interesting times... Times when no matter the cost, the rewards are hollow, empty, and fraught with pain.
Vol

[Zoe Richardson]

What a powerful piece. I think a lot of people feel frustrated at the way the word 'hate' gets bandied about by this group and that group. As you pointed out, hate is a common commodity these days. It cheapens the deaths of those who truly know the meaning of it. Thank you for sharing your words and thoughts. They are bold and refreshing!

[FGFRANKLIN]

The Holodomor gets little mention except in Ukraine but Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death under his rule so mother Russia would have no lack. Man's inhumanity to man knows no bounds. There are monsters all around dressed in people skins. Hate is such a wasteful emotion because it destroys the holder and harbinger more than the target. Things which I hold in contempt are beneath my dignity to address and beneath my integrity to waste energy on. But pride and honor are two very different things. Pride is the path to destruction and selfishness but honor is the path to respect, humility and human dignity. Just my thoughts. I enjoyed the read.

[Ken Simm.]

After all that has happened to me I find the one thing I don't miss is hate. But Orson Scott Card said in order to destroy someone you have to love them not hate them. So perhaps there are lots of things, no people that I hate.
Complex, intelligent and wise. Which as you say are all different things.

[John the Baptist]

Hatred ceases not with hatred.

[Vol]

John,
EVERY TIME!.........

[Ken e Bujold]

:)) love this. thoughtful, spot on in its invective snarl against the deniers of truth. Makes me nostalgic for some of my old old screeds. Every society needs it's pit bulls and you my friend are truly that. Which i mean as one of the finest compliments i can give

ken

[Vol]

Ken,
Well, dang, man... thank you for such praise. . I don't know about you but having spent more than half my life with the threat of nuclear war looming, practicing for it by hiding under school desks, and theaters full of post-apocalyptic films... I have never been so pessimistic as today. Maybe all these UFOs will bring KLaatyu and Gort to save us...
Vol