Coal-Cored Comments

Communities have torn themselves apart,
Blackened lives for principle, denounced
The stranger at the door for being strange.
Sometimes, knocking at the door at all
Is flint enough to spark a scorching fight.
Your thoughts, and mine, have blistered at the touch
Of coal-cored comments. How the ashes fly
On currents that affection cannot ride
When we speak at our best, and for the best.
Anger is the torch that fires a town
When friendship's glow could hardly warm a speck.