Creature with an underside
made of moving parts,
bristles make patterns in sand
spelling words only animals
know, we sell their shallow
outlines in shops, ringing bells
signaling our entrance, a quick
swipe and we can take one home
without an idea of how it looks
when living and mobile.
Has love has become a commodity
An undervalued, underappreciated
Gift we all need and crave?
Society has made us afraid to either show
Or to know what love is, we’ve become
Afraid to show it, to feel it, to love,
Yet love itself is universal.
Advertising makes us think,
Oh, I’ve got to look like this to be loved
But one thing advertising or media
Can never show is that simple love
Is just a hug, a kind word or a
Couple guys having a beer
Cracking jokes, laughing,
Never futile as they
Would have you
Believe
Tensions build
boundaries crossed – an
agreement was reached
– arbitration was made
– composed of fences
and built of trenches –
we split our own world
into smaller pieces.
As I study world history
An eerie similarity becomes apparent
The resemblance is striking
Carbon copies
Existing simultaneously
Which begs the question
“Was this globally coordinated?”
Everywhere you have trodden
bears the mark of your presence
Who is the true plague?
In familiar fashion
Overtake and assimilate
Cancerous nature
For which there is also no cure
Just how large is this machine?
How long has it been operational?
If it is indeed 20/20
It behooves us to see clearer
And ask the hard questions
Concerning the scope and magnitude
Of oppression
What is this?
This deep, seething, burning
From the darkest pits.
It boils and churns
Trying to escape.
Magma just below the surface
You would never know it’s there.
Unstable hot springs
Seeping gases unrelenting
Do we heed the warning signs?
Or do we steadily trample aimlessly
Crushing and pressing
Creating depressions
Under the weight of our own selfishness?
In a space where the underworld meets the free
Conflict occurs.
Uncontrollable, unabated, unobstructed.
But we saw this eruption coming.
We heard the rumbling
We felt the tremors
Yet we chose to ignore.
And now we race to escape
But to no avail.
Being overtaken,
Our Pompeii lost forever.
I gave you all, said “Come, lie with me,
on me, in me, by me, through me,
gaze upon me, caress me.
I give you life and beauty too —
all I have is yours to share
but please place me gently in your care.”
But you have torn my garments,
stolen my jewels, scarred my face,
besmeared and besmirched my skin,
groped and gouged my secret parts —
your rule, cruel, your treatment, rough,
so insatiable you can never get enough.
I writhe and cry out in protest.
I heave and crack,
send mighty tempests.
I stop the rain.
I send parching heat.
I must struggle and strive
and cry for help.
I plead too, say,
“Come, repent, be my friend,
be tender, gentle, make amends,
it is not yet too late to start again.
Think for a moment of the future.
Those children left will bemoan your folly,
and, despairing about their hope and fate,
curse your abusive misrule,
and you for being a short-sighted fool.”
O can we not live together?
I give you life and beauty.
Can you then not care for me,
love me, work with me
or must I, at last, finally, regretfully,
in deepest sorrow
turn my back and put you out?
—–
When I walked beside the magnificent Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland, saw how much it had retreated, read about the speed with which this is happening, heard the glib pronouncements from politicians, I was moved by the idea of how exploitative we humans are and our need to act to protect the earth, the only home we will ever have. This poem and its abusive metaphor is the result.