Conor Burrell

The grass and dirt in my backyard is littered with things
–gifts and annoyances of nature
rocks, pebbles, bugs, dirt, tree branches
things that I think most of us who fought dragons
battled with imaginary lightsabers, played floor is lava
tag, etc.…remember all too well.
Scraped knees, dirt covered clothes, the freeing mind of being a child.

The world seemed so much brighter then.
Now, the closer I try to hold these memories
I find the color of them starting to fade.

The world is losing its color, losing its bright light.
Is this just growing up? Or is it because the world, society
and the environment are burning around me, around us.
Like the sweet taste of chocolate turning to ash in out mouths

was the world actually better then? Or were we just being naive?
Are my parents just in denial, or are they still trying shield me from the rain
even though I have been drowning for years?

I worry, that no matter how much light
and color we try to infuse back into our backyards
no matter how much of these pebbles, rocks, dirt, leaves,
branches that we try to gather and save
everything will still fade to black and white

colorless, an old photograph with no more importance than to be stepped on
by the boots of those who feast on our suffering.
It’s so easy to want to give up, to want to leave
sometimes the loss of our backyards and the burning of the photographs we hold dear
is enough to want to leave. Permanently.

How can one stay sane without a place to be safe?
How can we gather our sticks and leaves
when our backyards simply cease?

Why do we, as a species, not only burn our own backyards
but burn others, too.
Just because some people’s backyards are different, burn
burn into oblivion.

It doesn’t make sense to me, but all I know is that I’ll be gathering my sticks
my leaves, my rocks and pebbles
in a hope that you all will do the same.
Provide help and shelter to those living, don’t burn them.
And maybe, just maybe, color in our world will stay, and the light will stay brighter.
My backyard is your backyard, and yours is mine, so let’s play in it, together.