Voices

They were kids ...; no one asked their opinion or told them anything. They just had to muddle along and live in the world presented to them, confused a lot of the time because nothing made sense, but certain of their subterranean place on the food chain.

Kristin Hannah

The Great Alone

They come from afar, rising with the sun,
jostled together over rough and bumpy roads,
or from across the street, down the way
and around the corner, bound for school
as we all were in our more youthful years.
And the schools filled our brains with dates
and wars and rules and things we saw
no value in, wondering when or if
we’d ever use this stuff even as we
worried about dates for prom and this Friday’s
battle, how we’d do, points we’d score,
or how to circumvent the rules society thrust upon us, 
keeping us in the neat little rows of desks, 
and quiet, preparing us for what was to come next.
We did our homework, mostly, performed 
and were rewarded with a number or letter 
meaning little. We graduated, deemed 
as educated and ready to take our place
in a world changing fast and leaving us
behind; the math and the history
and the grammar we learned served us
so little then, and perhaps even now.
In the convenience of living today,
our lives made easier with gadgets and gizmos,
and with unemployment, poverty, and a fear
born of hatred and greed and just plain living, 
we seem to have lost something promised us 
in those years of our youth, waiting for a savior.

Today, they come from afar, or across 
the street, down the way and around the corner, 
but they are not us, are more aware and wanting more, 
tired and giving voice as we feared to do, 
or having done so, were shut down; hippies, 
they called us, outcasts, non-conformists,
Communists not worthy of our rights, 
of our constitution, children who didn’t know better;
“Grow up,” they yelled to us, so we did, some
giving in, succumbing, conforming, giving up, and others 
finding their voice, voices raised again and demanding
change, challenging the status quo, as we had, 
but voices grown now and imbued with power and strength, 
voices unafraid to speak out, to speak up, to be heard,
voices that can not, will not, be silenced, not this time.
And we are afraid, perhaps threatened,
full of dates and wars and rules, history 
and math and grammar, and we await a grade to save us,
some letter or number meaning little, forced now 
to confront our own ignorance, hanging on to what 
we have become, forgetting, and maybe a little unsure,
what to do, how to go on, letting go and letting them
take our place, moving forward in the changing times.