We Are Not The Forsaken (Poem)

We are not the forsaken,

Those who are without hope,

Those who have been left behind and forgotten,

Those who do more harm than good.

When terror strikes and explodes,

We do not abandon each other.

Doubling back despite the danger,

We are together.

Brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers,

Aiding one another selflessly.

Might terror strike again,

We will return,

Leaving no one behind.

But our mirrors lie.

They twist our self-perception.

Where there is light,

We see nothing.

Where there is dark,

We see everything;

We see the forsaken.

Corpses climbing cliff,

Destined to destruction,

Dropping stones that strike,

Those who still have a pulse,

Seizing their hearts,

Capturing their minds.

All this for one purpose,

To make them like us,

Yet we, the so-called corpses,

Fear the great blade of mediocrity.

These corpses are the forsaken.

We are not them.

We are vividly alive,

Dodging the stones sent from the few.

Occasionally we are struck,

But a hand returns us.

The mirror lies.

Where we see a corpse,

There is the contrary.

The darkness is not winning.

The battle tips its hat to us,

And the future looks to us for guidance.

We fear we are not enough,

That our parenting will fail.

We doubt our goodness.

We doubt our ability.

Our predictions call for a storm,

Where we may summon a sun.

The world is sick.

We may be sick.

Time will see us healed,

Through death or antidote.

We simply must try.

We may fail,

But more importantly,

We may succeed.

We are not the forsaken.

We are the future.

-Zero