A mirrored duet for two voices or hemispheres

Voice A (Bright)
In Kenya, kids with solar lamps
read stories past the setting sun,
a lion’s roar, a hero’s map,
a future quietly begun.

                                 Voice B (Dark)
                                 In Gaza, homes are turned to dust,
                                 the lullabies replaced by drones.
                                 A child draws stars in ash and rust,
                                 and dreams of peace in undertones.

Voice A (Bright)
In Iceland, whales are spared the hunt,
the harpoons rest, the sea breathes deep.
Old songs return in ocean grunts,
and silence sings where shadows sleep.

                                 Voice B (Dark)
                                 In the Arctic, ice retreats,
                                 a polar bear adrift, alone.
                                 The warming tide, the melting streets,
                                 a future carved in shrinking stone.

Voice A (Bright)
In India, a forest grows
from hands that once knew only dust.
Each sapling bends, each blossom shows
how roots can rise from broken trust.

                                 Voice B (Dark)
                                 In Sudan, silence hides the screams,
                                 the markets closed, the rivers red.
                                 A mother walks through shattered dreams
                                 to find her child, alive or dead.

Voice A (Bright)
In Brazil, a favela choir
turns rooftops into sacred halls.
Their voices lift like morning fire,
no stage too small, no dream too tall.

                                 Voice B (Dark)
                                 In the Amazon, flames devour
                                 the lungs of Earth, the sacred green.
                                 The trees fall fast, the skies turn sour,
                                 and profit dulls what might have been.

Voice A (Bright)
In Scotland, windmills spin with grace,
the air is clean, the grid is green.
A child draws rainbows in her place
and calls it “home,” not “might-have-been.”

                                 Voice B (Dark)
                                 In Ukraine, the sirens wail,
                                 a lull in war, then fire again.
                                 The fields once gold, now torn and pale,
                                 the harvest lost to steel and pain.

Voice A (Bright)
In every corner, joy takes flight,
a rescued pup, a healed divide,
a stranger’s hand, a street turned bright,
a stubborn hope we cannot hide.

                                 Voice B (Dark)
                                 In every corner, grief takes root,
                                 a vanished vote, a poisoned stream,
                                 a vanished truth, a soldier’s boot,
                                 a broken law, a buried dream.

                 Together (Spoken in unison or echo)
                 So let the headlines pause their storm,
                 and let this verse be what we choose:
                 a world remade in quiet form,
                 a daily dose of daring news.

                 So let the headlines tell their tale,
                 and let this verse not turn away:
                 a world in mourning, raw and frail,
                 still begging for a brighter day.