How can I leave my mark upon the world?
Is it easy to amass great fortunes,
wealth beyond imagination?
To ruthlessly pursue the single goal of having more?
To achieve the greatest total in a world,
be obsessed by numbers.
Any number greater than one is only conceptual.
And concepts right no injustices,
Nor do balance sheets make a lasting mark.

How hard can it be to raise an army,
march across the world,
conquering nations as we go;
found an empire on senseless war,
scar the future for a thousand years
with the pain of mothers and widows?
But pain does not enhance beauty,
scars fade with time and the future waits
to despise conquerors who only mark
the minds of one generation

Should I make icons or build great temples
with stone torn from the one true temple?
Corrupt my faith to glorify a deity
created in man's image to inspire fear
in weak minds; a god whose name
will craft traps of faith and philosophy
and ensnare love in guilt and fear?
Statues and icons speak no truths;
stones crumble, faith is swallowed by greed.
They make no mark upon the world

I can teach two children to love each other
and their world, respect the things that share
their time in this dimension; to plant
and tend, give and cherish, watch things grow,
learn from good and bad alike.
And if I teach well perhaps they will
pass on my lessons to the ones who follow.
That is my task if the mark I make
is to help heal this infinitely forgiving Earth.