The Future Of Us

The world is ending, or maybe it already ended,
And what's left of it are things that would end with it.
Funny to think eh? Soon, there'll be nothing left for you or me here.
I don't think there's anything left for me here anyway.

No, I'm not suicidal. But, living in a world
Where nothing is right would do your head in.
Having to question what's worth living for everyday
Could deprive you of your sanity;
Having to be weary of who you walk past in the street,
And looking over your shoulder to see who's trailing you home;
Having to run a mental background check on everybody you come across–
That could make you mad.

But I'm not mad at that, no.
I'm mad at the fact that I've looked forward to having
A family of my own, all my life, and now
I'm not sure I want that anymore.
I'm mad at the fact that, I've loved my unborn children all my life,
And now I don't know if I want to see them anymore.

No, wait. I do want to see them,
But I don't want them to see this world.
There's nothing here for them!
Their pure innocent souls shouldn't have to suffer
For what my generation and generations before me did.

Their brand new lungs, shouldn't have to
Breathe in the air that we contaminated.
Neither should their fresh silky tongues
Taste the waste we left as food.
Their clean unwaxed ears shouldn't have to
Hear tales of our recklessness;
Nor should their eyes, see the statues of
The miscreants we made famous.

Their soft feet shouldn't have to walk unhallowed grounds,
Neither should their tender hands be washed in blood.
Their vibrant spirits shouldn't be corrupted with our dampened ones,
Neither should their enlivened beings be depressed for our mistakes.

It scares me to think that that's the possible future,
Because that's the future we have built for them.
We had our shot to do better, we could have,
But only if we knew what good was.

Instead we have to question, day to day,
What our lives would have been like if only
We took our shots for what they were–
Shots to a better world, shots to a better life,
For us and the future of us.

—Onwumah Ozed
©2020