Counting

This morning, 
I am not going to add up 
how many deaths over the ditch,
and compare,
to how many deaths over there.

Nor, will I post about the human arithmetic
of some lives appearing
to matter more
#all #black #jewish #palestinian

My algorithm
is different 
to your algorithm.

And in a calculated way, 
we are divided
further.

We find ourselves here.

Trolls.

Scrolling past the body bags of dead children.

And, with our soft typing fingers,
arguing about what it all means.

Karlo Mila

Dr Karlo Mila, of Tongan and Pākehā descent with ancestral connections to Samoa, is an award-winning poet, writer, mother, activist and researcher.  She is the author of three books of poetry, including Dream Fish Floating (2005) which won the Jessie MacKay Best First Book of Poetry at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her most recent book, Goddess Muscle, was released by Huia Publishers in 2020. Career highlights include representing Tonga at the 2012 Cultural Olympiad event Poetry Parnassus Festival in London, a Fulbright Creative Writing Residency in Hawai’i and reading poetry at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Peoples Forum in 2018.