Monument
You
I would make a monument of you
All of you
Who have stood up
Who have called out
Who have spoken
Loud and proud
Unafraid of the consequences
I would make a monument of you
All of you
Who have dared
To make a change
To cause a ripple in the unchanging steady flow
Of what is right and what is wrong
Even though the world may never know
For those who kept silent yesterday will remain
silent tomorrow
I would make a monument of you
All of you
All the people who believed their ideas were worth believing in
All the deaths gone unnoticed
For to forget the dead would be akin to killing them
a second time
And over all of their hardships that they persevered to climb
Even though all the while, Death’s bell chimed
I would make a monument of you
All of you
Babies, toddlers, children
Sons, fathers, mothers, daughters
Anyone and everyone
Who has been told
That their life was of no consequence
Although their soul’s worth couldn’t be measured in any amount of gold
You
I would make a monument of you

Inspired by lines in Night by Elie Wiesel.