Empathy #19

In deep shadows empathy may fade

Fractured world, in hues of gray,

Lost echoes of choices made

Tear-streaked nights, where dreams decayed,

Heart’s whisper becomes a bray

In deep shadows empathy may fade

Mirrored in souls, reflections betrayed,

The tapestry of kindness starts to fray,

Lost echoes of choices made

Yet in silence, a spark conveyed,

A gentle touch can light the way,

In deep shadows empathy may fade

Through empathy’s lens, our fears are laid,

A bridge of understanding we display,

Lost echoes of choices made

Empathy blooms a powerful bouquet,

Beacon in the dark, a sunlit ray,

In deep shadows empathy may fade

Lost echoes of choices made

1-9-24

“villanelle: a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.”