I made the lights of the city

The city sparkled like a mecca for stars in the night

The lamps were dark, the windows shattered,

But the city shone, washed in the ruddy light of burning towers, smoldering homes

Dappled in the light of thousands of flashing muzzles

Washed in in the orange of glowing iron and crippled war machines and boiling corpses

The city spat sparks like the lights leaving a million eyes.

And I will be left behind.

 

I made the busy streets,

Buzzing, alive, choked with fleeing families

The streets were coursing, moving, as the men marched forward,

Up and down over the rubble, like a green serpent breathing fire and lead

The men shouted at each other or shouted at the sky,

Or shouted out calling a lost limb back to them,

Wailed like the infants they remembered being.

They wonder, Am I on the side that is right?

Will I be on the side that is left?

And I will be left behind.

 

I made the bubbling rivers,

The crimson stream gurgling down the avenues

The feat of Moses replicated,

The river that was once packaged up in separate veins in separate bodies,

Now released, let to swirl and mingle indiscriminately

As the scarlet river flowed into the cracks in the road, down the storm drains.

And I will be left behind.

 

I made the singing birds,

The roaring engines streaking across the sky on aluminum wings,

Chirping with automatic fire and megaton payloads.

I made the clouds,

The whimsical puffs of black cotton-candy smoke

That blanketed the sky

I made the rain,

The pitter-patter of ash on the rooftops,

Seasoning the air with the smell of metal

I made the thunder and lightning,

The scream of the missile,

The flash and the rolling rumble

I made the hills and the valleys,

The rolling landscape of piled concrete and glass and steel,

Riddled with fossils of an invisible past.

I am hate.

And I will be left behind.

 

And before I came,

There were young people on a night like this,

Bludgeoning a rival gang in a contested alley

And a woman in an apartment turned grey with mascara and bruises

While her husband turned red

And their child steeped in neglect

And a murderer was executed so that he would learn that killing is wrong

And they called it a time of peace.

And they will be left behind.

 

And you

You think the world can be better

And when there is quarrel you will speak softly,

You will move the world with a whisper and people will strain all the more to hear

And where there is difference you will learn and understand

You will embrace your fellow with smiling eyes and open arms

And where there is dearth you will sacrifice,

You will thrive on helping others to thrive, delighting in the blossom of the future

And where there is offense you will forgive,

Darkness, you will sow light,

Silence, you will spread warm words.

You lack the courage for violence

You have the courage for peace

And when an angry blow knocks you to the ground,

You will stand and offer compassion,

Unhurt, for your soul is invincible

You want to change the way people think,

So that they never look at violence again,

So that love and truth solve all problems instead

And you will change the world

You will make bright city lights,

Streets bustling with hopeful faces

Rivers running pure and blue,

Colorful little songbirds, white clouds, cool rains, dazzling storms, and green hillsides

And you will sing and dance

You will nurture and tend

You will remember and complete

You are human

You will love

You will move on

And I will not matter.