Child of the World
Maybe you don’t know it, yet
you have power
to change your own, others and the older ones—
we must help to give you the chance
to see, to explore everything, make this world better
to be with everyone, others like you and not,
to think how they think to understand why
to accept we are one, not many, all together
not separate but the same, not different
and you can tell us how
to be a part of different experiences
making us better if we’re open
to be enhanced by newness
to be you—youth with other youth
not stubborn or fixed, not stiff or closed
not critical or hateful, because you know
when the body and mind bend
we mend.
By Lynne A. McNamara
Published in Poets for Peace—Sunflowers Rising: Poems For Peace Anthology, May 19, 2025
