The World We Built (And The One We Broke)

I carried every story

Until they carved themselves into my ribs

Some nights, I swear I can hear them

Whispering from the bone

Asking why we let the world unravel

I’ve seen a child fade like a dying candle

A mother swallow her hope like poison

I’ve held the hands of those

Who didn’t have enough sorrow left

To cry anymore

I’ve watched bodies vanish between headlines

Watched grief get washed from screens

Like rain from expensive windows

And all the while, we built a world

Where silence is easier than change

Tell me…

What kind of future grows

From soil this soaked in regret?

Some say the world is ending

But I think it ended quietly

Years ago

When we stopped looking at each other

Long enough to feel anything

This is the world we built

And the one we broke

Piece by piece

With every lie we swallowed

Every truth we choked

This is the world we built

And it trembles in our hands

We lost the map to kindness

Somewhere between

“Not my problem”

And “Someone else will care”

I saw a man sleeping under a billboard

Promising a better life

I saw a woman hide her bruises

Behind sunglasses too big for her face

I saw a family bury their child in silence

Because the war had taken

Even their right to scream

We are ghosts of our own making

Walking through ruins

We politely pretend

Are still homes

A melody plays in the distance

Something soft, smiling, dishonest

The kind of tune played by people

Who never tasted loss

And call it “perspective”

The truth is a wound we keep bandaging

With distractions and excuses

We’re so afraid of looking inward

We’ve forgotten how to look up

This is the world we built

And the one we shattered

With cruelty spoken softly

And empathy spoken never

This is the world we built

Where prayers echo in empty rooms

And hope sits on the edge of the bed

Afraid to speak

In case it sounds naïve

If every broken heart

Had a voice

If every lost soul

Had a name

If every wound

Was finally seen—

Would the world still pretend

It isn’t bleeding?

We stand in the ashes

Of everything we ignored

We built skyscrapers

On top of graves

And call it progress

But the dead remember

The forgotten remember

The living remember

And I—

I carry them all

This is the world we built

And the one we broke

And maybe—

just maybe—

we can learn to rebuild

If we’re brave enough

To look at what we’ve done

The world goes quiet

Waiting for an answer

And all I can say is:

I’m sorry

I’m listening

I’m here

And I won’t

Look away

Again