History Lesson - Andrew Barham

That bright moment in Our shared History
When young people everywhere
Caught fire with an ideal sometime in the 60s,
Letting go, as they let down their hair
Of all the tired old rules and conventions,
Dancing in the street to a rock n roll beat:
New poetry, art and music – the invention
Of mixed media, back then, a novel treat
And all while promoting a philosophy
Of Peace, Love and Harmony,
"For we are all one," they said, "Join us in unity."

Since that long ago golden moment
Hatred and intolerance have returned
And when I look around I can only lament,
Wondering if, after all, we have ever learned
How to live together with each other.
When will we begin to see each other as we are?
Under the disguises we wear, we are all brothers
Sharing in the same universal despair.
I can feel your sadness reflected in your eyes
As you labour under your burden of care
Down deep where I can hear your hidden cries.

Yet, I can't forebear to confess
That I too have begun to feed off the growing hate
Whene'er I contemplate the sorry mess
We've made – the lamentable state
Of our shared world and our common affairs:
The people who lead us and should set an example
For us all to follow, have only led us to despair
As upon every good thing we've built they trample
Grinding us down, stamping our faces into the dirt –
For they have brought us to a new world without care
For the lost ones fallen by the wayside they've hurt.

Greed, selfishness and the forlorn pursuit of money
Have replaced the harmony of peace love and understanding;
Their promised land is not the land of milk and honey:
It is the empty state of endless demanding.
'Where will it go? Where does their ranked equation trend?'
I wonder as I gaze ahead into the murky distance,
'Is this a new beginning or have we finally reached the end?'
For I see only unending desolation wherever I glance.
Can we return to that bright promise of an era vanquished?
For if we don't get back to that blissful state of human unity
The equation's solution is that we will languish
In the Hell we've made for all Eternity.

Andrew Barham