Finding Direction

What place is this
where people hate
with such a profound malice;
and demonise their fellows
with words untrue, and callous?

What tribe is this
devoid of love,
with no joy, or compassion;
who are programmed by their masters
to embrace the chains they’ve fashioned?

What people are these,
who repeat dogma and lies
as if it were some cosmic verity,
while disdaining those who struggle
with no hope, without charity?

We’ve become lost and confused
on our stumbling path,
making obstacles to hide the way.
We’ve made an art-form of exclusion,
and our anger darkens each day.

What place is this
where such promise
morphed into something unclean;
where dreams of creating a heaven on earth
became simply cruel, and obscene?

What sadness is this
when a poet must pen
lines so dismal and black
rather than words of peace and love;
lost concepts that we now lack?

What place is this?
Can we change it?
Can we wake to a brighter dawn?
Can we break from those who bind us,
or has our humanity gone?