Before several pairs of eyes
I stand and read about legacies;
about trunkless legs, about visages
shattered by time and the whispering
our voices leave as if grains of sand.
I stand and ask young people
to consider the power of mankind;
our ignorance, wilful and uninformed,
our shifting belief nature is ours
to command and change.
My voice reaches each wall,
settles in the corners and cochlear
of hearts still firming behind rib cages
still stretching, still becoming
the powers that be in ten years from now.
I ask children to consider how all
we hold ignites like fire
and vanishes like smoke. I ask them
to wonder if their footprints will be scars
or moving marks in Gaia’s palms.
Inspired by Shelley’s Ozymandias.
Poem: © Kristiana Reed 2020
