Once We're Gone and Dead

We live in a broken world,

I’ve heard it over and over before.

Traditions are lost, morals corrupt -

Only to be torn apart by war.

We build and we build

Our cities stand tall overhead

But are those cities all that will be left

Once we’re gone and dead?

Towers fall and the earth crumbles

Nothing we construct will stay

We can’t seem to use our hands

In any sort of lasting way.

And it’s not just our buildings

That have fallen on top of us.

We’re suffocated by our lack of love

In a world deprived of trust.

We ask, “How are you?”

But don’t wait for a reply.

It’s like saying hello when

You’ve already said your goodbyes.

You see, the world’s problem isn’t its brokenness.

I’m sure Adam and Eve’s house blew over, too.

It’s that we fixate ourselves on the trivial

Without asking, “What else can we do?”

Giving a homeless man a shelter

Doesn’t necessarily give him a home

Because the walls weren’t what mattered to him,

It was the people who’ve now left him alone.

Cleaning up a beach

Only changes it for a day

Because until people see what they’ve done

Beaches will remain that way.

Change starts with people

Looking back on their past

And seeing how little of what they’ve done

Actually will last.

Once we see what’s behind

Only then do we look ahead

To leave something that will last

Once we’re gone and dead.

Words are the only thing

We can forever leave behind

Because they’ve been the only thing so far

To stand the test of time.

We can set them to music,

We can put them in a book,

We can write them in a diary

For only us to look.

We can write them for a class,

We can speak them to a crowd,

We can unite a generation

Or use them to tear it down.

So if our words are all that’s left

After your soul has gone on ahead,

What will yours say of you

Once you’re gone and dead?