Once More Into the Open
As I take a stroll
through places I used to know
I see the playground alive,
full of laughing children,
bounding in unshackled joy.
Their parents sit there, quietly
smiling from the heart –
it's been far too long
they've had a ceiling for blue skies.
I see people going back to work,
people buying and selling
their life and their time
all of that for a little coin.
I see people fighting
with words and guns
at home and abroad
with loved ones
and demonized foreigners
when not too long ago
every goodbye could've been the last.
I see people have already forgotten
their new-found values
and the difference between
what they want and what they need.
Once more we take for granted
our loved ones, and ourselves.
Forgotten is the fear of tomorrow
as we sink back into the muck
of silly preoccupations
and petty squabbles.
Most of us will forget,
some never learnt,
and as normalcy returns,
so does the wool over our eyes.