Inheritance Poem by Elvis Lantan

So far the world I have inherited
Is plagued with murder and disease
Youth dying at daybreak
And old men who are kept in a box
Away from all the foliage and streams

It seems that not so long ago
We died and certain tyrants took over—
They left our remains behind
And, in the end, we lingered… as dust

We forgot so many things—
So many things that memories became an expense
We forgot the names in the soil
And the flowers next to them
And little by little we forgot the person in the mirror

Then one day
We covered it all up
With skin-tone make-up
And a blanket of woven pretense
We shielded our eyes in fear
And never again saw our own disaster

The dictators cheated the population
The aged men expired in that container
Our minds became discolored memoirs
And we never again came back to life