Anthology

Response-bility

Responsibility

I learned, was a hard word

To swallow.

And a harder one

To convince another

To take.

Responsibility

Held itself back for those

Who caused damage

But did not limit itself to those wretched souls.

No

Responsibility, had etched along its side the powers of guilt and ability,

That whoever wields them does so with the power of

Change

I found responsibility lying on the ground, propped against a door

Passed out on the subway and awake at the wheel

Found it in the bottom of a can and the top of a box and

In the pages of a book or the flickering of a screen

Responsibility was everywhere, was all over.

But no one picked it up.

No one charged themselves with the duties of being

It sat, empty and neglected in those places, gathering dust and cobwebs

Until it didn't.

One day, it wasn't propped on the door, or in the middle of the page. It wasn't buried in the dirt, or waiting for the light to change. Instead, it was tucked in some girl's backpack, being pulled along in some kid's wagon.

It was hoisted high above a building, carved into the doors of another. People carried it around, picked it up at will, did what they had been charged to do.

With great power comes great responsibility, was said once, a long time ago.

The modern rejoiner, the sign of the transition, calls, "If I have the power to help and I don't, then it's on me."

Responsibility is a hard thing to foist but is not so hard to carry and to adopt. And best of all, it comes in travel sized packages for your convenience, so long as you promise to carry it with you.

Where will you take it next?