What If
By Edward S. Gault
What if there comes a time
when there is no war.
Even the youngest victim of war today,
will be a senior citizen with only the faintest memory
Of what was like.
If they remember at all.
There will be museums with the old guns and tanks.
People will pass by,
asking why?
What if there comes a time
When there is no poverty.
Everyone living will have a place to call home,
A place to sleep
And something to eat.
There will be pictures of homeless people in museums,
exhibits will display their 7-11 cups
And the thin gray blankets issued to them out of charity
By church and civic groups driving by
Never asking why?
What if there comes a time
When people are seen for who they are.
No one will remember when people
Lived in separate neighborhoods
Because they were black or white
Rich or poor.
When better jobs were given to men.
Words like nigger and bitch will have to be looked up.
Hoary old scholars will debate their meaning;
Because people in that time will not understand
These terms in the same way that we do.
People would see the old WHITES ONLY signs and Klan robes
On display in museums and not understand.
Passing by.
Asking why?
What if there comes a time when every child is included?
There will be no labels in the school.
No names on the playground,
-every child would be accepted there.
Homes would be places
Where they would feel wanted and safe.
They might hear accounts from their great grandparents
Of the beatings and neglect, but these would be
dismissed simply as myths,
Told by very old people.
Visitors to museums will be able to view the old video clips
Of preachers and politicans talk about Family Values.
In exhibit cases there be the tattered old green shirts of the Promise Keepers,
Photos of the Million Man March.
They would not understand the issues.
They would wonder, then pass by.
Asking why?
What if there was a time
When AIDS and Cancer were things of the past?
There would still be colds and fevers,
But people would be able to get the care they needed.
Cost would not be an issue.
Surgery might still need to be done in some cases.
And when it was necessary, small children would have a teddy bear
In their room to hug,
When times were scary.
But there wouldn't be many scary times.
Senior Citizens might talk of the old plagues,
Most would simply ask "Did it really happen"?
They would see the old quilts and ribbons in exhibit cases.
Pass by.
wonder why?
What if there came a time
When the wounds of the earh would heal?
What used to be parking lots and strip malls
Are not remembered.
In there place are parks and lush botanical gardens.
Archaeologists will excavate the ancient mounds
And meticulously sort through what used to be Levitt Town.
It will be slim pickings-so scholars will publish papers
Speculating on what might have been
The scope and magnitude of the waste.
A ranger will lead her tour up to the mesa.
She will point to the remains of the skyscrapers
reaching out of the water like someone drowning.
She explains that there are not many of these old structures remaining.
That the ruins could be found all over the world.
They are the wonders of the ancient world.
She will discount the U.F.O. theories.
"There was land here at one time" she tells them" but we don't know when".
What if there comes a time.
What if.
Copyright 2008
