[Annie]: 415.Poetry.Personal Favorites.An Empty Cup

An Empty Cup
by Annie T.
Free Verse

People in white
People in black
Preening their skins of ignorant conflict

Health and prosperity
War and debt
What once was invisible is now unavoidable

Democrat, Republican
I barely started voting
Yet suddenly things have become so complicated

AIDS keeps killing and
Prices keep soaring
The nightmare continues long after I wake up

Our fathers are sick
But yours can’t be healed
What can I do but prepare for the bitterness?

I've been called naive
I've been called insightful
And now I have to learn to call myself anything

As a funeral is had
Chopin keeps crying
For the fear of nothing and the desire for something

I’m getting educated
But I don't feel any wiser
When the crutches are pulled, what will I lean on?

Guns and fists
And I still don't feel safe
Oh my love, all I want is to hide in your gentle arms

And this world keeps turning
And I’m praying for strength
Because I just don't know what to think anymore.