Who Are We Poem by tom zahrt

Who are we to think
That we may make a difference in this world?

Which one of us
has shaped an unmolded mind
or conquered the terrible brutalities of war
or poured their soul into penning a work fit for the ages?

Who amongst our ranks is there
To rival the greatness of those who came before?

I ask you now
Where are the doctors, the teachers, the soldiers
the policemen, the firefighters, the poets, the lovers?
Where are they who will take the place of those names
Emblazoned upon the pages of history?

Who amongst you can say
I am Einstein, I am Locke
I am Hemingway or Thoreau
Can equate themselves with the likes
Of Earhart and Dickinson
Of Tubman or Parks?

When I look upon you my peers
I see none of these names
My eyes fail to find those pillars of days past
Those men and women glorified through time

Yet

What they do glimpse keeps them open
Not only so, but indeed
Their gaze widens

For though your names are different
And your stories lie unwritten
Your feats unsung and your resolve untested
There is something in you I cannot quite place
And what we can't place we had best to describe



Who are we to think we may make a difference in this world I have asked
This is who we are
This is what I see

We are the new, the young, the free
The molten steel waiting to be poured
The innovators of tomorrow's world
The first leaves upon a youthful tree

We are the speakers, the thinkers, and the doers
We will write the books our children read
We will overcome the ignorance, brutality, and strife
All too common in the world of today
And when our time is spent and done
We will have left our mark upon the Earth
So when one day
your children fill the chairs in which you now sit
They may find this world a better place

This is what I see
This is who we are
This
Is you