Children

As I look around myself in wonder,
awe and fear couples with joy.
The observable joy outweighs,
but will it always?

What world will I bring my children into?
What world will I show to those I raise?
Will they too know more joy than fear?
And their children?
And theirs?

With each generation my faith in goodness
outweighing the negativity we humans have brought to this earth
fades.

How I long to read Dickens, Austen, Tolkein and more
to a new generation ... how I long
to explain to them history, social satire,
fantastic depictions of human emotion,
truth and beauty.

But can the canon hide from them
the disintegration of resources
facing our race every day?
When will those who have no water
travel to where it is, and fight?

Will my children travel elsewhere,
to build wells and educate the poor,
while clutching their life-saving
purified water, guiltily?

If I traveled elsewhere,
could I continue to clutch my own water?
Or would I too disintegrate
into the fathomless deprivation
that is our world,
our home?

I will continue the struggle
to recognize the fear in the world
despite my personal place of peace
so that somehow I may promote
the future survival of our children,
together as one human family.