Trying to save the world (from the dining room table)

Trying to save the world from the dining room table is a feat.

I sit still while the world turns, turns, turns slowly around me.

I watch it burn from my phone screen; we never learn our lessons.

I watch it break and fall apart, driven to the point of no return,

We learn the worst lessons from our hate and history books.

Trying to save the world from my parent’s couch is even worse.

CNN is burned to the screen; I see red and blue,

Black and white all muddled together

However, they tell the story

Like a sermon from the mountaintop.

Let’s change the channel-but no, you can’t.

This is class and I’m trying to keep up, trying to take notes

In hopes that this will be on the test but it’s too late, we’re onto

The next topic: I sit at my desk, alone.

Trying to save the world from my childhood bedroom just makes me sad.

This is the place where I dreamed I could change it all,

Past and future shook hands to put me here, present in a moment

We’ll look back on years later.

Naïve or hopeful depends on what angle you’re looking from,

But don’t they just seem so damn close sometimes?

There’s a dream I have where I’m driving and the wheels are turning,

Surroundings transforming past me, but I’m stuck in one place,

Immobile as the world changes around me.

Can I wake up?