These days, we hold guns
At the ones we once
Held our guns for.
We give out freedom
As a broken promise.
We don’t care
For the things
That need it the most.

We’re raised on cartoons
And our parents’ words
About politics.
We’re raised to prepare;
To vote and to speak
For what they believe in.

But what if I believe in
Something so obsurd
As pacifism?
Or natural equality?
And letting the Earth rule
The way it did in the beginning.

We take advantage
Of what our country
Offers to us as “freedom.”
But freedom, actually
Is ignoring injustice,
And the so-called “morals”
Given to us when we are born.

We aren’t the soldiers
They try to shape us into.
We don’t have to live
By obeying the systems
That “run” us
By burning us out.
Or stay safe and justified
In the cage they put us in.
We don’t have to keep quiet
When we’ve been neglected
Or insulted.

We are alive
And that is reason enough
To defend ourselves,
Because we weren’t born
To follow principles
We don’t agree with,
And that we know are wrong.
We are born
To love one another,
And to better each other,
And to find our voice,
And to use it.