When humanity is lost

A world that chokes on its last word

Last year, when I first started my Substack page, I had the serendipity of meeting Cassian Delmare, a brilliant writer who writes beautiful and heartbreaking poems and stories. For months, I was nursing a feeling that is still very much alive, and I had the honor of co-writing a poem with him about the state of the world we are experiencing right now. But once he left Substack, this piece disappeared. So I am re-posting it here. I hope one day he comes back and sees that his words still live in this small corner of the world. Thank you, Cassian!

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When humanity is lost, what remains?
We are left with empty words,
ashes of meaning scattered in the wind,
and actions that shatter.

We lose a piece of our souls each time we look away,
drop
by
drop.
Until nothing is left.

A shell of what we once were,
echoing the ghosts we try to forget.
A silence that settles where truth once stood,
not peace, but absence wearing its mask.

We barter compassion for comfort,
forgetting the cost of such tasks.
Mercy becomes taboo,
while kindness is framed as naive.
Something people outgrew,
in disillusion, we pretend to believe.

As the end draws near,
I ask myself, why are we still here?
I try to comprehend.
I hear so many screaming,
but no one is truly listening.

The skylight no longer stirs wonder.
When the shooting stars land,
there is no one to stand.
Only dark fields, burnt by pain.

What remains when hope is slain?
A shadow dancing in the rain?
A name once sung, now left unheard.
A world that chokes in its last words.

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Written by Gabriela Borin Barin and Cassian Delmare

Photo by Joseph Devanbu on Unsplash