Gregarious Mourning

Human nature is unchanging
consumed with curiosity
drawn to scenes of disaster
the more gruesome
the greater the attraction.
Why so compelling?
To judge the contrasts
between one's good fortune
not to be so dreadfully afflicted
while finding an unwholesome
satisfaction in strangers' woes...
Compensating with a
mass stampede
to become the first
to be among those others
of like emotive persuasion
in hushed silence, gathering
to grieve in solidarity
with disaster, depositing
offerings to propitiate
tempestuous Chance
or simply offerings 
of flowers, wreaths,
Teddy-bears to accompany
those departing spirits
to their precipitate
netherworld. Empathetically
gregarious mourning.