I once saw a post on Instagram
Of an innocent child with his hands up, as though he was surrendering,
And the caption
was that he thought the camera was a gun.
That is not okay
What has happened to this world?
How did we get to where we are?
Let me tell you.
Let me tell you,
About the ruin this world has become
Every week there is a new YouTube video uploaded of more people evacuating their homes due to raging fires.
Let me tell you,
About how the lungs of this earth are burning in flames
The amazon rain forest is what future generations will know as a dessert
Let me tell you,
About how a Muslim holocaust is going on in china
Where Muslims are being forced to eat pork, drink alcohol, and are being raped.
When Hitler was killing Jews, no one knew about it, so there was nothing done until people found out.
But here we are today, where the entire world is at our fingertips, and yet it is still going on.
Every time I watch stories, i see the same post of how we have to do something about everything,
But no one is doing anything.
Tell me how it makes sense that we all know what’s going on, and yet it is still going on.
Tell me how
Tell me how it is okay?
Tell me how it is okay that we all hear about bombings going off daily in all these places
And yet we are not doing anything about it.
And no,
Re posting something on your story does not help.
Variations of the same post reminding us every time we open our phones
Of everything going on, and yet it is still going on.
It brings awareness yes, but here we all are – aware.
What are we going to do?
What are we going to do about all that has been going on in this world?
Tell me why take our privileges for granted when people wish –
Oh i hope they still wish and dream-
They wish they lived our life
They look at what we think is a ruin of a life,
And wish it were theirs.
“ the person I like doesn’t notice me, my clothes are out of date, my makeup is from the drug store, my teacher yelled at me, I’m failing my classes”
Tell me why this matters when people are dying
Humanity has lost all its contact with sympathy, empathy, and the ability to care for others.
Tell me why you are all sitting here nodding your heads in agreement
When people’s heads are either being blown off or are somewhere detached from their body.
Pause
Tell me how that’s okay.
Tell me for god’s sake.
It is not okay
Kids here are off playing in the park,
While others are moving their parents bodies who died right in front of their eyes.
Every child needs noise cancelling headphones to prevent them hearing the ruins of this world,
But no
That should not even have to be thought of because these kids should also be off playing in the park.
Everyday they wake up not knowing if they will ever put their head back down and sleep
But don’t we all wake up with that fear?
Don’t you just wish you could save all these children from a lifetime of trauma
From all they’ve been through since infancy
That is if they make it alive past then.
Want to know what is interesting,
is the mindset behind the people doing these things
What kind of psychotic person do you have to be to be doing what you’re doing ?
Did your parents not love you enough
That you have to go off and kill other kids’ parents?
Their source of love
Care
And safety
is forever taken away from them.
Is your safety enhanced by taking away the safety of others?
It is brutal.
It is heartbreaking,
Unethical,
And unfair
That humans – like us – around the world are going through such anguish
And we are doing nothing
We are barely even trying for god’s sake.
Let someone in this room be the reason the world is a better place
Please.
Because how will these children live the rest of their lives knowing the things they know?
They should not know the things they know.
Or have seen the things they’ve seen.
Because we are able to move from an Instagram post, but these kids are not able to move on from their reality.
And I’m standing here for change
What are you here for?
January 12, 2020 at 9:14 am
Dear Sarah,
Let me just say that I admire your optimism in all areas in your life as you seem like a very positive person. I am glad to have been given the opportunity to be in a Creative Writing class with someone like you. Also, I just wanted to say that you have a powerful presence on stage and I even thoroughly enjoyed how you would just be casually smiling at lines that were talking about death. Anyways, I honestly don’t see how nobody commented on your spoken word yet because it was amazing. Your writing reveals so much truth and so much pain. This is why its easier for the audience to connect to whatever issue you are talking about, even if they don’t have any personal experiences with it.
For improvements, I would only recommend one thing: that in some areas of your spoken word you have phrases that repeat and although repetition can be a powerful too, it can also cause redundancy.
All in all, we’re gonna end our grade 12 year strong, and I know that you’ll find success in whatever you choose to pursue. Have a good one.
January 12, 2020 at 11:27 pm
Thanks for your comment Abhay, I really appreciate what you wrote. I’m glad you enjoyed hearing me present this, and yah a few people mentioned to me about how I smiled while talking about death, but the whole idea of how no one cares is what I found funny, I promise I’m a sentimental person.
I know what you mean in that there is redundancy, probably in the lines of me saying “let me tell you” and for the spoken word competition in April, I will be looking to fix that.
Thanks again Abhay for being such a positive aspect of my life (: