This is an apology I never wanted
or thought I would have to write but
now, my grandchildren, it is necessary.

This is not the world I wanted
to leave to you, what I had hoped
was a world at peace, a world where
you could be anything without being
judged or shunned, where words
had meaning and books were treasures.

Instead I leave you a world where
anger and spite have supplanted reason,
where ideas that differ from those
who hold power are deemed dangerous
and will be forbidden and punished,
how loving the wrong person or
knowing you are not the gender that
you were born with is a mortal sin
that the state feels it must punish,
where books that go beyond their simple
religious beliefs must be banned
and soon enough burned, and where
freedom of religion seems to be freedom
to their particular faith, all others
merely biding time before going to hell.

I know this is not the world you want,
and I know you will take up the struggle
and battles I thought we had won, and
I can only hope that you will never
have to write this apology to your own
children and grandchildren one day.