When Will We Open Our Eyes? Poem by Ruth White

I.
How come that child on the street
is laying there below my feet?
All it wants is some pleasant food,
to be hugged, loved, and probably soothed.
And yet it sleeps there on the ground,
it has not been seen nor has it been found.
Many people past but they dare not look,
they fear if they glance they might be hooked.
Thus there it shall stay among the flies,
So when will we open our eyes?


II.
A mother weeps for her long lost son,
he was shot over seas, he was killed by a gun.
Yet no ones cares enough to look at her tears,
that she will have to bare for the rest of her years.
However this mother is not alone,
There are other families who have been blown.
They too have found that their child has been killed,
for the better of the country, they have paid the bill.
And yet these soldiers will go unknown,
they will go un-praised without a throne.
When will we hear these sorrowful cries?
And when will we open our eyes?


III.
There are two types of people who live on our land,
those who work for their food, others get cash in hand.
One family struggles to get a small meal,
While the other smokes and gets to eat veal.
The system is messed up,
it's completely corrupt.
We need to stand up for the workers,
and not for the hookers
How come the one that works just barely gets by?
Please tell me again, when will we open our eyes?


IV.
Gay marriage has become legal, go ahead, taunt.
Many will agree and say, “do what you want.”
Then someone stands up for what they believe,
Then they get mocked, and appear naive.
What's wrong with thinking straight marriage is okay?
No one is perfect, no one is attacking the gays.
Just like them, we are speaking our minds.
Trying to protect our own very kind.
You will keep your mouth shut, if you want to stay alive.
Come on people, when will we open our eyes?


V.
It's a mother's right or a mother's will,
to have her fetus destroyed, or in other words, killed.
How does this world not see,
what we are becoming to be.
We are clearly murdering babies,
This country has gone completely crazy.
That child you conceived,
is a gift received.
However you went and threw it away,
and you will never even have to pay.
The child inside of you perishes and dies,
So you tell me, when will we open our eyes?


VI.
You know when we should open our eyes?
When that child sleeps among the flies,
when we hear those families sorrowful cries,
when the one that works just barely gets by,
when we keep our mouths shut to stay alive,
when the unborn children must perish and die.
However still we have not opened our eyes!


VII.
This lesson is harsh, but yet it is needed.
It did not just ask, it came and pleaded.
It wants you to look at yourself inside,
To stand up for the weak, to never hide.
So what will it be? Will you come and fight?
Stand up with us now for what you know is right?
Give help to the homeless, and praise the heroes,
encourage the workers, and non of us are zeroes.
Take that gift that you have been given,
It's not called life if you aren't living.
Don't be scared now, come on and try,
all you have to do is open your eyes.