First they came

by Steve Pottinger

after Pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the hospitals
and you did not speak out
except to say they wouldn’t, and anyway, tunnels.
Then they came for five-year-old Hind
and you did not speak out
except to say, regrettable, but anyway, hostages.
Then they came for journalists, professors, poets
and you did not speak out
except to say, awful, but right to self-defence.
They came for schools, mosques, aid workers,
anyone in the sights of a sniper
and you did not speak out
except to say, yeah, but most moral army.
Now they come for starving people in tents
and burn them, and you do not speak out
you do not speak out
you never speak out.

When they come for you
expect nothing but silence.