By Kaedy Puckett

Some see pain as memory and some see memory as pain

Poetry, Art, and Literature, aestheticize the slain.

Gruesome torment, captured through portraiture of inflicted sin

Where seeing eyes are captivated by bittersweet disdain

The moon, the stars, the cosmos hold no candle to the image

Of torn and twisted flesh; of cruelty utterly inhumane.

Does vivid horror unite the good, or does it please the bad?

What is glorified in paint, is in a photograph profane.

What should appall, does some enthrall; the terrible has beauty.

How suffering could evoke such thoughts is a concept quite arcane.

Though we may seek to understand appeal in the horrific,

Truly grasping human nature is a tireless campaign.