The Empathizer

The duality of such a positive term

Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț

A Poem about strength and the dual waywardness of empathy…

Empathy is the empath’s
sword
They carry in it, the uncanny
ability to swim in literal
woes and pains with someone
who is not them

This isn’t the same as sympathy —
sympathizers have a different tune
they can stand across the gaping ocean
and peer into your

landlocked soul and understand from
a human level

When I hear empaths saying they
empathize with the predators,
with the demons,
with the lowest of the low

an icy kind of dread forms along my
arms and spine
Are these little monsters in
training?

Are these humans wearing skin masks
pretending to be cordial, to be corporate
conservative angels when
they never empathize with dead
brown bodies
but their souls connect with the hand
that kills