A Bleak Response to an Older Generation's Concern

I am afraid that we know no better than you.

I am afraid that cycles of cruelty and destruction will spiral

on and on until fire melts our sidewalks and skyscrapers.

I am afraid that human consciousness will be left cracked and burdened

with such a terror in its core that an individuals mind

becomes the last object not an enemy’s weapon.

I am afraid that we will continue to believe

that knowledge can be sucked from empty lungs

and that chains and drenched faces

will give us inillusory power.

I am afraid that hell is calmly perched outside our doorstep

with dark corvid feathers and a thirst for flesh, like ours;

patient, it knows the thin wooden slab will one day invitingly open

where a feast of our eyes and innards will be laid out on expensive chinaware.

I am afraid that hell already knows that the door is unlocked.

I, too, pray that God absolves us all--

because I am afraid that we are too late to ask for his forgiveness.