2025 on the World Stage 10

this is the year of spent tears
dried leaving only salt tracks

so many tears have fallen
for so many reasons 
so many losses
so many deaths
so many sacrifices
so many wars in all of their manifestations

that we now sit dry eyes agog
eyelids sewn open so that we 
cannot stop looking
cannot stop seeing
cannot deny knowing

yes we have marched
prayed
sung
donated
beseeched
demanded
fasted and fought

but what are the results reflected inside 
the salt mirrors of our dried tears

around the world satellites project
mass media snuff films 
steroid looped again and again
Palestinian children with severed limbs
severed hearts 
severed lives

mothers cradling their babies' remains
fathers folded over their dead mothers
brothers digging out families
buried under rubble canyons of terror

death a daily diet 
they eat it and we watch 
them on television 
and cry as they are 
bombed shot beaten
as they starve
as they freeze
as they wither
as genocide becomes a crossword puzzle clue
“crimes of humans without humanity”

blink we are in the Sudan 
where stiffened bones 
angle beneath the skin 
fitting like an oversized coat on a thin wire hangar

soldiers dig graves for the thousands they have massacred
pushing the bodies like last week's garbage 
into massive chasms 
hastily covering the remains

blink and we are in haiti
blink and we are in ukraine
blink east oakland 
blink the congo
blink venezuela 
blink blink blink

it has been a year of tears
spilled until there are
no tears left to fall
so we keep moving towards the precipice
tumble down sharp rocky cliffs 
that with each winter storm
slide off the edge of the planet

into a seething ocean holding
circling gyres’ marine currents
bearing two hundred million tons 
of swirling sinking
consumed and reshaped plastic

human waste immortalized 

and the earth has answered with
firestorms of retribution
floods of ferocity
heaving tornadoes 
howling hurricanes
defining droughts

this is the time of year we add up 
all of our losses 
divided by our accomplishments
factored into our dreams 
secured or abandoned
forgotten or lost
retrieved or recreated

lists are made of the best and worst the most and least
what celebrities died
what movies made record profits
one hundred people you should pay attention to
the man woman of the year

somehow left  off the lists
the most children massacred in one year
the most mothers martyred in one year
the most journalists assassinated in one year
the most immigrants torn from their families in one year
the most innocent people incarcerated in In one year
the most murderers and thieves and drug czars 
given presidential pardons in one year
while the most books were banned 
the most unhoused people swept up 
from one corner
freeway underpass
vacant lot
to settle on another 
still unsheltered and under-valued

this has been a year of loss 
a year of dry tears
which we must pause and acknowledge

before determining that next year
will be a year where we have 
more to celebrate
than to mourn

devorah major

December 31, 2025