What Do We Owe?

What do we owe to a past
that is full of massacres,
pogroms, and war?

What do we owe to a present
that is full of uncertainty,
risk, and strife?

What do we owe to a future
that is full of extinctions,
death, and life?

We owe them what they
have given to us,
no less, and nothing more:

survival, love, and life.


To your children
sing this song:
may you live
long, and long.

Text and image © 2019 by Donald Jacobson Traxler.