i don't want to die

i don’t want to die
a statistic

buried under layers
of digits below a bold
headline and aerial
photographs

i don’t want to be
a victim of circumstance

pushed along with the crowd
in fiery mayhem, lodged
between two strangers
when the ceiling caves
under a collective weight

frozen at gunpoint,
facing vindictive rage
against someone
other than me,
being discarded
for their mistakes

i have always thought
of myself as a person,
rather than as just
part of a group

but death has little use
for individualism
or petty self-worth

since it’s much more
dramatic to descend
with one fell swoop –


and colour all our fates with
the same shade of confusion