What in the World?

Cities transformed into war zones

Like some third-world police state.

People hating, mistrusting,

Misunderstanding each other

Based on class. 

Or race. 

Or religion.

Elders mistreated and disrespected.

Children going hungry and uneducated,

Bundles of wasted potential.

Politicians promoting their puritanical notions.

Telling others whom they can love and marry.

Trying to keep women in “their place.”

Petty partisan bickering

So that nothing constructive gets done.

Corruption.

Abroad, more of the conflicts

that have been smoldering and flaring for centuries.

Barbarism.

Unspeakable atrocities in the name of country or God.

Innocents in harm’s way.

Those trying to spread the story

Captured and murdered

In the most gruesome, horrendous fashion imaginable.

Corporations and governments

Indifferent to the damage they do,

Only caring about the bottom line.

Again, corruption.

Our problems are interconnected with the world’s.

Won’t it ever end?

I wish there were more I could do.

I can only throw words at it

And hope and pray that enough people

Come to their senses

And work for transformation.

Yet each good and innocent soul

Lost to the insanity of this world

Is not forever lost.

It is a light that will never be extinguished.

It is now one of many stars in the heavens

And their combined light will prevail.