Round and round the wheel of time goes;

Where she stops, nobody knows.

As tides come red and pebbles turn black.

Name a virtue which we today lack.

 

We have TVs, and treadmills, and shiny things too,

Yet sometimes, I fear, kids say there's nothing to do.

Smartphones, watches--everyone has those,

But most people can't tell what's poetry from prose,

 

Here's an idea--hear me out now;

Hold that brash tongue off as I speak about how...

Oh! How we spout words and how we profess:

False knowledge as if it were a sin to confess.

 

We are lacking in skills needed to communicate,

And we can't listen without feeling the need to deprecate.

We put down those that state an opinion,

And attack whose minds are worthy of notion.

 

Although, I must admit, I'm quite fond of this country--

In all of its grace, honor, and glory--

It'd be a shame to see its ties erode,

And all because we were too cocky to behold:

     The ideas that others would care to give,

     So that their thoughts may be allowed to live.