As Time Goes By

By focusing on our differences
We are perpetuating stereotypes.
Instead of the things that unite us
We are obsessed with the things that divide us.
Like picking at a barely noticeable imperfection,
It soon becomes a large, open, festering wound
One that will take millennia to close.

As generations go by, we have a choice:
To move forward in unity
Or to move apart
And into little sections of a pie chart
United only by the walls of indifference that separate us.
All sorted into neat little boxes and filed away
Like that's some sort of accomplishment.

Building bridges sometimes means you put aside your differences,
Accept that we don't all think the same
Realize that it would be dangerous
To all think the same way.
Yet, round and round we go
Never knowing who we are implicating next
With our sweeping generalizations.

Like a gnawing hunger, the beast claws away at our insides.
Trying to turn us all against one another
Devious, cunning,
He can worm his way into anyone's heart.
We all have cracks in our armor
A deep rooted need for acceptance and belonging.
We search for a purpose and can easily be guided into uncertainty.

Clouds descend and engulf us here
In this pit; in this time of upheaval.
We wait patiently for a future we all envision,
But we have not yet realized that we can't please everyone.
Discomfort and strife are necessary
To know what comfort and harmony are
You must experience the opposite

Shadow and light are one and the same
Neither exists without the other.