our birthright

this is your birthright: 
scientists are predicting the end of glaciers; 
a flood, like the kind the church pastor says, 
only there's no noah to provide deliverance
no God to assure you of a redemption. 

this is your birthright: 
your teacher advises the class to 
"get the hell out of dodge"
'cause they don't see any future left 
for the generation they've been paid to raise. 
your friends agree. american government, 
they say, is at the pinnacle of its downfall. 

this is your birthright: 
you have grown up in wildfires and blizzards and hurricanes 
in a world where a falling tree-branch can leave you an orphan 
in a life where a virus some people still claim is a hoax 
has left you robbed of a grandfather
you thought you still had time to know. 

this is your birthright: 
a world collapsing into itself 
and you, who they say must mend it, 
as if it's an honor to save the world. 
 

yejunee

FL

18 years old

More by yejunee

  • ouroborous

    the snake is hungry 

    so the snake will eat 

    and eat it does, chewing, gnawing, 

    and will you ever notice, little thing, 

    that it is your own tail 

    you are swallowing? 

     

  • abalone

    from salt and foam and scales 

    steal the hearts of stone 

    nacreous shells, dying husks, 

    the honey-sweet flesh that once 

    clung to its bones 

    to die of thirst. 

  • eschatology

    meet me at the end of the world 

    the space between firestorms and tsunamis 

    across the acid oceans 

    and here, where the rot 

    has begun to reclaim the cities at last.