Slam poetry: What Is It To Save?

What is it to save?

Is it a superhero in tights

Saving the world?

But, what does it mean

‘To save the world’?

Superman would say to catch

The villains,

The criminals

The people who harm the innocent

But I say it means

STOP

The atrocities

The unjust

The cruel

And literally save the world

Before it is destroyed

Who do we save?

Everyone? Just a few?

And can we save

All who we want to?

How do we make such decisions?

Like a lifeboat sinking

With too many people

Who gets thrown overboard?

The weak,

The socially insignificant,

The poor?

Would there be any volunteers?

Or would we panic

Run amok

Fighting others to stay alive?

What do we save?

We don’t want to part

With our possessions

It seems we have a consumerism

Obsession

To face the desperation

Of a threatened life

We’d change our values

Sure enough

But who of us has had

Such luck?

To save: is it to rescue from harm or danger?

A liberation?

Or maybe it’s prevention

Halting the dangerous forces

Before they do their damage

Or is to save to keep?

To cherish, treasure,

And preserve?

What does it mean to you?