Drabbles and One-Shots

Be Better (Poem)

(Written 5 June 2018)

Cold War, Vietnam, Desert Storm,

Conflicts of the past,

Blame falls on a generation of

Disagreement, distrust, discrimination.

Even though this is where we come from,

What we're raised with,

Be better.

School shootings and bomb threats

Shouldn't be something we're simply 'used to'

But it is.

It is because we are told we're

Too sensitive,

Too delicate,

Too fragile.

We are told to accept these things by the generations

Who refuse to lose the ways of old,

Who don't believe in change.

They tell us that there's nothing to do,

Nothing to say

Because it has already been said

By those who are now dead.

We need to speak out,

Be louder,

Be better

Than those who would rather us be

Seen and not heard,

Meant to bleed and not learn

That perhaps our predecessors are wrong.

They mislead us by saying that we'll grow up to be nothing.

The cowards above us are scared that we are right,

Scared that we will

Be better.

Because they want us to make their mistakes

So they can't take the blame.

It is not human nature to hate others,

But you wouldn't know that

Unless you ignore the powers that be which

Scream at the sight of those who are not like them.

We need to grow.

In spite of this, we need to let go.

Someday,

On a bloody battlefield,

When there is so much blood, sweat, dirt staining the air

And the clothes on their backs

We will decide that we are tired.

Tired of ceaseless wars

And meaningless beatings,

Of living in fear of our neighbors and peers,

And those soldiers will make a decision.

They will throw down their arms,

Abandon their machines of war,

And finally,

Finally accept that they may not be the same

But that they are equal.

Someday, I know in my heart, we will

Be better.