Question.

At fourteen I felt
the shots of Columbine,
at the end of a millennia,
at the start of '99.

In only a few seconds,
13 precious lives
all fell to the floor
bodies dropping like flies.

Sprayed down by the toxins
of bullets and pride.
Years of torment left them all
with nowhere to hide.

At the beginning of the last millennia,
One hundred years before,
Our ancestors thought
we would be so much more.

More than violence and hatred,
More than greed and contempt,
More than a child's empty belly,
More than their parent's struggle for rent.

Then, Women were trying to find
A voice of their own.
The freedom to speak
a right never known.

Black men were seen as
lesser, other, apart,
Yet things aren't so different
As they were at the start.

When Neil touched the moon
back in 1969,
A whole thirty years
before Columbine,

People thought we would be
somehow greater than them.
They would not have imagined
How quick we condemn.

They imagined we would
be dressed in space suits.
Flying in cars
with rockets on our boots.

We should have been
living on Pluto by now
Yet here we still are
collecting sweat on our brow

History should teach
each person to thrive,
Yet we became warped in
a world of cynicism and lies

What do we imagine
tomorrow should be?
What delusions of grander
Would we like to see?

Our old leaders
dreamed for peace, love, and hope,
And yet now we to teach our children
simply to cope.

Let us walk away
from our faltering past.
We learned what we could
but new things must be asked.

How do we strive
For equality and peace?
How do we make the hearts
Grow to obese?

Hearts made full
with kindness and love
Each beat giving
Everything it's made of.

How do we reach
a future full of hopes and Joys?
How do we keep guns out of hands
Of lost little boys?

What must we do?
Where must we go
To see men in rocket shoes?
And girls playing on Pluto?