Ark of the Lost Angels

Credit: Author

Originally written March 14th, 2020. Inspired by U2’s “Peace on Earth”.

We failed the children.
When I was a kid, I heard hopes,
Of worlds where kids never worried
About shootings and bombings.
But all the way from LA to Baghdad,
Kids grew up unsure if their friends would see tomorrow.
They grew up facing each day as if it were their last.

We failed the children,
Every time there’s a shooting in Baltimore,
Or a knife attack in London,
Or a bombing in Syria.
We proved that we’re too prideful,
And too vengeful, to create a world of peace.

We failed the children,
By not teaching them empathy by examples.
Instead, we cart away their parents for drugs,
Or fire missiles into apartment buildings,
Or keep women from driving and wearing what they want,
Or turn away neighbors fleeing war and poverty.

We failed the children,
And we raised them in a world as broken
As the world we grew up in. 
Our job is to make it better,
To practice what we preach,
Pull our heads from our asses,
And give them what they deserve.

We cannot fail my children.
I will number with countless parents one day,
And when that happens,
We have to give them the world they deserve.
They deserve sunrises without smoking ruins,
They deserve fields without antipersonnel mines,
They deserve city nights without tracer rounds.

I can’t help but cry myself to sleep,
Because we keep fighting for idiot reasons,
And we force them to grow up too fast.