Decay: A Poem About Collapse and Reformation

It exhausts me to see so much decay,
Watching as society crumbles more and more each day.

I listen to other people talk and hear what they say,
Lamenting how their buying power used to be better than today.

I see people sleeping on the streets, feeling hopeless and gray,
Costs keep rising, and people’s labor doesn’t receive adequate pay.

I watch as nature disintegrates in ways we can’t yet weigh,
With the planet heating up and the climate crisis fully underway.

I feel so much horror watching people destroyed from far away,
Hearing them cry and scream with their suffering on full display.

I see videos of death and despair on replay,
Wishing that instead of kids dying, the kids were allowed to play.

Everywhere I look, I see that people are not okay,
And it despairs me to see the world in such disarray.

It is clear that the way things are can no longer stay,
And that we can no longer allow progress or liberation to delay.

For I know in my soul it’s not meant to be this way,
So I look for the helpers and people jumping into the fray.

And I try to help them keep the darkness at bay,
For one day, I know we will awake to a better day.

One where there is no hatred or sorrow to survey,
And the people of the world get to have a say.

So, while I’m exhausted, and it might sound cliche,
I still believe that one day, it will all be okay.

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