One day I saw that the hypothetical
mortality I had considered since
teenage years, was now a sure thing
and sooner rather than later…
A comparatively isolated childhood
had given me time to consider
many things that never occur to
some people until they do…
Is sex before marriage
a club to which members
recruit others to assure themselves
of their righteousness
Is there any point arguing
with people who believe in
irrational things like God
or the supremacy of the British
One day I saw that the struggles
of Feminism had largely failed
let alone broken the glass ceiling
and temporary wins are being rolled back…
One day I saw that World Wars
had not ended all wars
but only driven the game into
smaller battlefields fought by proxies
Even the MADness of Nuclear Deterrence
and the sanity of Non-Proliferation
were undermined by countries that possess
without confessing
And other countries elected demented
monsters to have their finger on the button
or to threaten to use the unthinkable
or assert that tactical nukes would not count…
One day I saw the world was sunburnt
because politicians count on being gone
before the bill for sun caused cancer
becomes due against their grandchildren
That the world ending less with a bang
more with a whimper due to overpopulation
was the least of Gaia’s problems
which no amount of Attenborough will fix
One day I saw that truth was no longer
binary and has, in any case, been smeared
until most people don’t know what to believe
and it seems pointless to care or have cared
One day I saw that another generation
would have to take up the fight
with new weapons like fact-checking
or digital abstinence, with
keenly honed humour targeted at
would be kings, and activism that
won’t lie down and be quiet
and disdain for status symbols
One day I saw that post-war boomer goals
were the exception and not the rule
and that the next world war
needs to be a war for the world
And then one day I saw that
I could relax a little, offer insight
when asked, without leading the charge
and just enjoy the day that’s in it…
© Andrew Wilson, 2026
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Grace in OpenLinkNight, invites us to post a poem of our choice and this one was written for my local Keighley Library Poetry Group (the prompt was the title)and since I have now read it there, I feel like it deserves a bit more circulation…