Will I live to plant my seeds in
this tainted soil we call Earth?
Will I live to introduce them to the air
they may breathe?

Will I live to purchase presents while
Santa Claus still exist?
How many birthdays WILL I LIVE to see,
while my oxygen still persist?

Will I live to teach my children
the abundance of knowledge
that I’ve retrieved?
Will I live to argue in state college—
discovering in close proximity
there‘s still distance?
Will I live to realize
the opposite of freedom
is resistance?

Will I live to meet their spouses and the
beings they’ll conceive?
How WILL I LIVE when they ultimately
choose those beings over me?
Will I live to attend the graduations,
gatherings, and the wedddings?
Will I live to tell them to live—
when they have nothing left to give?

by. Phil G. Steverson