I Ask You Poem by Dalyn Cornell

If God stepped down from the heavens
what would you say?
If you could ask just one question,
what would you choose to relay?
Would you ask him about heaven,
or would you ask for the truth?
If there is only a single thing you can voice,
tell me what is it you would choose?

I think I would ask him why,
why we are what we are.
Why he gave us our free will,
when he must’ve known we’d fall so far.
I’d ask him why he forgives us,
when all we do is burn.
Why we’ve made so many mistakes,
and we never seem to learn.

Tell me why you offer us salvation,
when all I see is our destruction.
Why we hack the trees to the ground
and with our chemicals the sky’s obstruction.
Why we stand in mindless apathy
while so many suffer and die.
Why we let corruption run our world,
why we scar the earth, waters, and sky.

Please tell me why we devise new ways to kill,
why we have such a talent for death.
Why we do not see the world is dying
and with it our last breath.
Please tell me why we hate each other so passionately,
when we are all but the same.
Why we think we are so mighty,
even as we descend into flame.

I beg you, tell me why,
tell me why we are so blind.
Tell me why we do not see
all the potential in our mind.
Why we war for power and money,
why we battle for the glory of God.
Tell me why we do not seem to care
for each other or the earth we trod.

Tell me why we think of ourselves
and try to fulfill our hearts with things.
Why twenty of us flourish with life
and the other eighty are left with pickings.
Tell me why we do not care,
we do not care enough to even look.
Why we waste our genius on guns and bombs
when there are so many problems afoot.

Tell me why we have been allowed to reach this,
this state of utter doom.
Why we have become a curse to the universe,
why our apocalypse would be a boon.
Tell me why we leave books to gather dust
and we gossip, hate, and mock.
Why we cannot grasp our own fatal flaw
and time is running out on the clock.

I ask you, tell me why,
why we’ve wasted what could’ve been so good.
Why you haven’t given up on us yet,
even though we all know you really should.
You cannot still think that we deserve to be saved,
after all that we have done.
You must know that if we were all to die,
the world would be so much better run.

We are capable of such great evil,
and I am ashamed of what we’ve become.
We were given such great gifts,
and now look—look what we’ve done.
We are beasts in pursuit of power,
willing to do anything to get our way.
We are the tarnished stone, once great,
and our mere presence dims the day.

You must look down at us with such shame,
such embarrassment that we are yours.
We have set fire to the city of eternity,
and now we must wander endless moors.
You created us in your name,
and we have fallen so far from grace.
We are the broken toys of the world,
the possessors of what was meant to be great.

And I must ask you to tell me why,
tell me why you let this happen.
I know that we have free will,
of word and thought and heart and action.
But I do not understand,
I do not understand why we are this way.
Was this how it was always meant to be?
Is this how we must stay?

Please, I do not understand,
why humanity has turned to what it is.
Why we pass blame and make up stories,
why we claim as hers or his.
And I’m afraid of where we’re going,
that we will not change soon enough.
I fear for our future,
if we even have one after all we’ve touched.

And some days I look out at the world,
and you know I never see what we could be.
I see only death and hate and egoism,
our dark and bloody legacy.
We have turned our faces to the shadow,
and I do not know how to save us.
I do not even know if we should be saved,
for would the world not be better without us?

I would like to believe that we’re deserving,
to have faith that there’s still hope.
To believe that there’s still goodness in us,
that binds us to you like rope.
But I look out and see the murders,
the hatred, the injustice, the wars.
And I despair at how we ever became this,
and sunk out of reach of the stars.

I do not think you should forgive us, Lord,
I do not think that we deserve it.
For so long you’ve shown us mercy,
and all we do is toss it.
I’m scared of where we’re going,
I’m scared of where we’ve been.
I do not think heaven is in our future,
after our lives so full of sin.

Humanity was once so great,
we had such potential for such wonder.
But now we’ve fallen so far down,
and pain rings out like thunder.
I wonder if we can salvage ourselves,
from all that we’ve become.
We’ve created beauty and timeless awe,
and then destroy all that we’ve done.

I’m afraid, Lord, of who we are
and what we value most.
I fear the numbness that fills our hearts,
and how we drift about like ghosts.
We clutch our technology to our chests
and kill for power and land.
You have offered your help and yet we refuse,
turning away from your hand.

And yet still you forgive us,
you offer us endless chances.
We scorn your care and each other,
but you still look down with loving glances.
I do not understand why you have not given up,
on us or all we are.
Could it be that you see what I do not,
that there is still brightness like a star?

I hope that one day we’ll be better than this,
that we’ll actually deserve your love.
That we’ll release the mystery of the atom
and embrace the secret of the dove.
For with our free will we are all that we have,
and your love can only guide.
I know you can only watch us
as we choose the dark or the light.

But I fear for us in all my hours,
that this is what we were meant to be.
And I fear that we will not see change
as an inevitable necessity.
I wonder sometimes where we are going,
what path we will choose to take.
What future lies before our feet?
What decisions will we make?

Do you believe that we are worthy, Lord?
Do you believe that we’re still good?
And I hope that we will not fail you again,
that we’ll become what we should.
I look out and see all the things we’ve done,
the evil that feeds on the planet.
And somehow I find myself still believing
that there is goodness in us yet.