The Price of Us

We built our cities out of hunger,

stacked glass and steel above the thunder,

called it progress, called it fate,

while something ancient learned to wait.

We sold the air, we burned the seas,

cut down our prayers in the form of trees.

We named it growth. We named it pride.

The rivers choked, but we looked aside.

Children learned to dodge the sound

of hatred marching through their towns.

Some went to bed with empty hands,

while others gambled borrowed lands.

We drew our borders sharp as knives,

measured worth in other lives.

Skin and language, faith and name -

different masks for the same old shame.

The animals ran with nowhere left,

the silence heavy, the planet cleft.

Extinction whispered through the dark,

a fading song, a dying spark.

And still we fought for crowns of dust,

for power built on fear and lust.

We knew the cost, we paid it twice -

a future traded at a price.

Listen closely - the Earth is tired.

Not angry. Just quietly expired.

Hope survives, but bruised and thin,

waiting to see if we begin.

Because the truth we fear the most:

we are the fire, we are the ghost.

No villain comes from worlds afar -

we are the wound, and we are the scar.

So stand before the mirror now.

Ask yourself -when, where, and how

did we forget that life was shared,

that love was fragile, and none were spared?

If we don’t change, the silence will.

The oceans rise. The forests still.

History won’t say we were blind -

only that we changed our minds too late to be kind.