'Confronted History'

if we looked at history
on a multi-plane spreadsheet
and compared the goings on
in each particular era

we shall find that at any given
period, no matter the advancement
there inevitably at a cost lay revealed

atrocities, genocides, discrimination
prejudices, and a lack of conscience
that mark the brute in humans

poets have also been present
ever alert on the front-line
emissaries of peace and amelioration
their words rousing, humanising

.