Left In Ashes Of Indifference #poetry

#sheilawithlove #quotes #michaeljackson #compassion #humanity #loss #hope #patriotic #destruction #apathy #climatechange
Left In The Ashes Of Indifference

I stand naked in a valley of destruction
where there was once abundance.
Alas! Growth has ceased.
Yesterday’s yield is no more.
It flows now in a molten river of lava,
fueled by flames of apathy.

Midst deep furrows in the ground I dwell.
Pitiful remnants of a once prosperous time
are now replaced by stark infertility.
Buds form not, flowers wither.
Seeds of new growth are sterile,
unable to sprout in the ashes.

Fires of wrath have swept uncontrolled
‘cross this once thriving, lush expanse,
Creating now but a wasteland.
This barren place is the majority.
We shall never till the depleted soil again
to yield a profitable gain.

Where may we find the once fertile soil?
Is there any use now to labor
to bring back the days of yesteryear?
Do we have the strength to
restore a time when man lived with hope,
not in a time of depravity and vice?

The winds of time have radically changed.
Man now turns against man,
brother against brother.
Far too meager is respect.
Erased is regard for differing points of view,
and heard too often is “MINE”.

I continue to stand in the shell of this place,
left in the ashes of the good.
Shall I scatter the ashes,
or, just turn and walk away,
Knowing that mankind has orchestrated
his own self-serving, caustic fall?

Sheila Bowyer Kline