Change the World

 

Today I heard on radio another young man died

from a drug overdose.

The hosts talked of how to fix this terrible loss

young people with their lives ahead of them 

in a nation where they could become

journalists, radio programmers

inventors of some new device

great leaders, healers. 

This is not a difficult thing to fix

the only species that threatens is us,  but

the last few hundred years has us addicted 

to the status quo and made our survival unlikely.

Young minds cannot endure the endless insult 

of lies— they cannot adjust easily to the principle 

control all life  to be at the top

by various means separating their desires 

from who they are—making ambition a game show

interrupted by messaging from sponsors

so — we either become a success or we hang 

on to integrity knowing who we are

either love and be loved or compete, 

sell out, dish up, abuse power and win

but we can’t keep winning over brutality 

by the despot needing public applause

from his own shattered self esteem

every time we choose winning over all else

see the grave stone etched

—here lies humanity beneath the rock

of a planet we murdered for vanity’s sake