The old need to die

In a few years, I will need to die,

To leave behind outdated ideas, prejudices

That still rattle in my brain, that I contain as best

I can, we are old, remembering when Martin Luther

King was shot, cheering for black civil rights

But still formed by the culture of our time.

Make way for the young ones who don't blink

When they meet an LGBTQ or attend a gay wedding,

Who don't recoil at the wisdom of science, or

Debate whether women should be in the workplace.

Let their disgust bring our country and the world to

New hope, the old must die, the future of 

Our Earth demands it.