My Manifesto

 100 years ago
We watched as our world was consumed
By anguish and despair. 
We fought,
We did everything we could,
And when it was over we said we had beaten it.
We hadn't.
It had only retreated.
Gone out of sight until
It got another chance to destroy us. 

That time is now.
We can choose to ignore it,
But the truth is right in front of us.
Our world is doomed.
The world we grew up in,
The world we loved,
The world we promised we'd saved,
It will die by our hands
And there is nothing we can do that will stop it.

We say we can save the world
If we just work together
And stop doing things that can harm it.
A valiant and valuable effort,
But one that will only work if our descendants feel it's worth it.
And if our descendants are like us,
And I don't know why they wouldn't be, 
They won't think it's worth it.
Power and wealth will intoxicate them
Just as it doomed us.

If we wish to save the world,
We will have to find a way to leave it behind
So it can live on without us.
However much we love it
We can't stay here without dooming it 
Through our own thoughtlessness.

It won't be easy
And most will want nothing to do with it,
But only when we escape the glass house
That protects and traps us, 
Can we truly grow as a species.