I am writing my slogan,
Ploughing through the streets like a trojan
I’m going to march with my people
Go to church, climb it, protest from the steeple

I’m spray painting my face
For the sake of the human race
It is not to be taken lightly
I will not ask politely

The cause is not negotiable
To win, it must be emotional
My intentions are always pure
We know the symptoms, now for the cure

We fly the flags of hope
We’ve walked the slippery *****
We offer our point of view
Now it’s time for something new

Our mission is for change
It is well within our range
Over time it can be done
A change has to come

It’s so obvious to some
But a mystery to others
We all must overcome
And unite as brothers

Tell it to one and all who’ll listen
Pay no attention to any derision
Keep the world schooled in truth
Make the place better for our youth

Some cry climate change
Other's say they're deranged
As the conflict evolves
All our lives are involved
Who's right or who's wrong?
What's the difference?
What's the true future view,
Is there more we can do,
Before we become past tense?

We ask what, what of our children?
As they grow and we show them
A future with no guarantees
What, what of our children?
Why do they have to pay for
Our past generations' misdeeds?

There's so much confusion
Over lies and collusion
Years teaching them right
Lessons lost overnight
They see others lie with impunity
What's wrong becomes right
Simply blow out the light
Darkness perverts civility

We ask what, what of our children?
As they grow and we show them
A future with no guarantees.
What, what of our children?
Why do they have to pay for
Our past generations' misdeeds?

No!  What of our children?

What?  Why do you lie?
True science deny!
What of our children?

What?  Why do you fight?
Wrong becomes right!
What of our children?

What?  Why do you hate?
It's almost too late!
What of our children?

What of our children?
What of our ...?
What of ...?
What ...?
?

one more crime against nature
and we’ll scuttle her completely

we’ll prove,
beyond any song
beyond a doubt
that we do not belong :

we are our own thing
and we shall brutally remove ourselves
from “the plan”

What is of a child's worth,
they say,
if not to save the Earth?

But hundreds of miles away
a twelve year old girl
sits in a classroom
and learns about the world
as it passes by.

How's it come to this--
having to defend the world to be able to live in it?
How's it come to this--
to be born
rid of birthright?
Must a child's life burn
as fast as a candle's wick,
or a forest in a slow, painful disappearing trick?
And instead of a crowd roar of applause,
there's only silence;
and then nothing.

The sun is in her eyes as she glides
through the trees, her hair tangled
with ocean, and she is extraordinary.
Looking at her, I am stranded
in that musical way, only a leaf
floating on a wide, wide river.
She swims beneath.
Miles away, I hear the winds reciting
her name, and even in September, she is a summer
watching the rains appear, reappear,
birds flocking in confusion.
I close my eyes and line the pages
with constellations, see the stars murmuring
on her forehead. Gold glimmers
in front of her eyes, my eyes,
and I am no one, nowhere.