Once: No Going Back

It’s the 25th day of Poetry Month,
and this must be said
with the honesty of reality.

There was hope once,
it flowed easily
from Summer’s green fields
strewn with wildflowers,
to Winter’s white,
with snowflakes of individuality.
But, it was a false hope,
one seen through illusion’s eye.
A lie,
told over and over
until it was believed
as truth.
It was a forced unbalance,
high sounding words
spoken by canon, saber,
and death’s terror.

Yesterday was yesterday;
Today is today.
Each step we take
holds the choices we make.
Their consequences
holds our future.
It is up to us
what future we make
and who we want to be,
as nothing is predetermined.

Never before,
in all of human history,
has a single generation
held in their hands
humanities direction.