Prayer for a New Year

Ross J. Edwards

·

Follow

Dec 31, 2023

--

Listen

Share

The world is a gloomy wood
Mapped by well-worn routes
That justify our self-aggrandizing acts
Of horrific exploitation

We want someone to tell us what to do
We want time-tested, timeless rules
To save us from the bitter taste
Of figuring out what we can bear

If we know the questions in advance
We won’t have to care about the “failures,”
The ones we gaslight by saying
That their natures cause their own oppression

We think we see through the everyday
To the eternal order underneath —
It just so happens to affirm our place
At the top of the hierarchy

Well, this year, what I want more than anything
Is to close my ears to justifications
And to just be what I am:
Lost in the wood, where you are too.