Shall unjust pain not be left unavenged;
Shall cries of anguish stay ignored for life;
Shall hands stained red by the work of their knife
be set free when in blood those hands were drenched?
Do guiltless victims' pleas not make hearts wrenched?
Do wounds unhealed not sow mourning and strife
in stranger, neighbor; kin like child or wife?
They cry: "Let those deserving be revenged!"

As just or tempting retribution feels,
it is not right to answer with rancor
for with wrath, the scar never truly heals.
The pathway forward's not to settle score
but to release and move past the ordeals
and quench the flames, not fan or fuel them more.