Our World, Our Responsibility

Dense, belching, ebony smoke.
Screeching, screaming, terrified lungs.
Pollution wreaking global havoc.
Progress, but for whom?

The oligarchs rub their hands with profit,
while the breathless struggle for life.
The choking cities clogged.
The withering earth scorched.

The millennials with their first world issues,
of which the third world would love to catch a glimpse.
Inequality and misguided justification set us unwittingly apart.
The always haves amidst the perennial have nots.

But does it always have to be this way?
If the plumes of smoke could clear
and the burning lungs set free,
the born and unborn will move on, united.