Out of Our Hands

Divide the recycling to bottles and cans

Make playlists with only our favorite bands.

Slice the rose from our garden that dares grow a thorn

Paint the eyes of our children before they are born.

Keep our dogs in their cages lest they wander too far

Set the codes on our systems for doors left ajar.

Rake the leaves in the garden with dead grass beneath

Cut the sweets from our diet lest they stick to our teeth.

Halt the trees in their growing

Push the waves back to sea

Build a wall between peoples

That’s the way it must be.

The days are all planned

The maps drawn out

We must know every moment

Not a small shred of doubt.

There are secrets that whisper outside of our doors

There are ripples that push past the tiles of our floors

We cannot stop the wind nor the path of the sun

We can never predict when our days will be done

There is comfort in knowing the roads and the routes

In waiting for trains in our firmly-pressed suits

But we cannot live life trapped inside our binds

Can't forget to look up, see the moon as it shines

The world is a chessboard and we are the pawns

Who can’t glimpse the picture til after we’re gone.