Where Do We Start

I never learned how to apply for a loan.

I had to ask my mother how to buy a home.

My mind nearly collapses

Trying to file taxes.

Yet I feel like I’m expected

Not to be protected

From things that I don’t know.

To prove that I can grow.

When I look at my child

My emotions run wild.

What does he see

When he looks at me?

How am I supposed to direct

My inevitable effect

On this life that’s just beginning?

How do I set him up for winning

When I feel inadequate

To demonstrate

What a successful life is like?

I can’t go on strike

From my responsibilities.

I have endless possibilities.

Yet how do I ignore that it’s probable

For all the impossible?

We live in a time

That is so sublime.

So why do I feel scared

And unprepared

To emerge into society

With such high propriety?

Yet the state of our civility

Is worse than our humility.

I’m appalled at what we say.

It brings me such dismay

To see our nation divided

And misguided.

Our system is flawed,

“One nation under God.”

For better or for worse.

Our rights are a curse!

Entitlement and ungratefulness!

Judgment and hatefulness!

This isn’t the world I want for my son!

How can it be undone?

We want the world to be a better place.

To do that we have to face,

That it is up to us all.

United we stand but divided we fall.