Poem by Aveline Yang
Graphic by Mariam Rizvi
This post was originally published in ‘Turning the Tide’, Bossy’s 2019 print edition.
‘Much’ meaning
Quantifiable –
As if good can be quantified.
Do we count every piece of shrapnel that
Did not enter flesh
And count that as good?
Or do we count every piece of shrapnel
That enters a Nazi
And count that as good?
In a time of
The Good Place and
China’s Social Credit System,
It seems that good can be counted.
For each person,
In each situation,
In every second,
Of every day.
Numbers don’t lie.
But numbers mean
Being watched,
and judged,
and accounted for,
Always.
Does net good tick up
Or down?
How much good is there in the world?
Put down your calculators
Put down your models, and theories, and debates
And you can feel how much good there is.
In your thoughts
In your strength
In your actions
In your soul.
What kind of time do we live in?
And how much good is there in the world?
