yes there are moments
when suddenly I can feel the weight of the world on my chest again
there are windows of time
that feel like snapping out of a dream
when I'm pulled out to face the reality of the world
instead of laughing on the dock and swimming in the lake
five years have passed and did we get anywhere closer
to fixing the world?
did we get anywhere closer to bridging people,
or do we find ourselves like the slowly expanding universe
somehow further apart?
it seems like no matter how fast we race
the walls crumble faster.
people wonder why we are stuck on our phones.
why wouldn't we want to willingly distract ourselves?
how else are we supposed to cope with the end of the world as we know it
other than outright refusing to acknowledge it's even happening?
denial is just as valid of a survival strategy
when it feels like nothing more can possibly be done.
how am I, as a 22 year old
supposed to do with this knowledge
of ongoing ecological and economic collapse?
how am I supposed to feel
when some people in power keep pretending that the system works because it worked for them
when it has failed everyone around
me?
how am I supposed to feel hopeful
about a society with stretched healthcare and an
imminently aging population?
it makes sense to me that some people believe
that being conscious to the realities of our society
is just too high of a price to pay.
how far will we go to protect
our comfort, our sense of place, our narrow understandings of this place,
our unshaken belief that we've got it all figured out?
some people will go to the end of the world.
but I do not even believe for a second that we are actually blind to the corruption and greed in our corporations, in our governments, and in our communities
I do not believe that we are doing anything other than trying to survive
in a system trying to eat us alive.
I am struggling
to believe we are not just doing the best we can out here
tell me what's worse:
all the needless suffering in the world
or the fact that we think it's the way the world should be?
it's our responsibility
it’s in our power
to decide how things should be
out here