(Photo: J. Criscenzo)
This Supersedes Everything
I drove over the crest of the hill to my home,
just as the sun was departing in a glorious inferno of red orange yellow.
Oh Nature, you can be such a show off!
I had to pull over and pause to pay tribute,
pause to marvel,
as human eyes have marveled for millennium.
I have never seen a creature not human
watch the sunset in awe,
and I muse that perhaps this is our raison d’être,
to simply pay homage to the magnificence of creation.
But now, so many horrible issues steal our attention.
How can we savor sunsets
when the ugly glare of
poverty, injustice, racism, war, greed, abuse, and waste
blinds us?
It seems this sunset is the last thing left that we have not
stripped, gutted, polluted, and defiled,
laying to waste resources, lives, potential,
and opportunities to stand in awe.
Those of us who are paying attention,
those of us who care about
poverty, injustice, racism, war, greed, abuse, inequality and waste,
those of us who try to make things better…
who spend too much time in meetings, in conferences, in demonstrations
to pause to watch the sunset,
like our Mother Earth,
we too are reaching the breaking point.
Too many things to deal with.
Too little of us to do the work.
Too few days left.
Too few hours left.
Too many obstacles to progress.
One too many people with fake orange hair
and a mouth shaped like an anus.
Too many misinformed, disillusioned, angry, bitter, ignorant humanoids
who think the putrid filth coming from that anus
is music to their ears.
Too many academics willing to take a $15,000 bribe to lie!
To outright betray science and humanity
for dollars U.S.
that won’t be worth the shit that’s about to hit the fan!
As I pause to watch the sky turn from fuchsia to rose to grey
I want to curl up and cry
because even if we could fix the poverty and injustice,
even if we could undo Citizens United,
and save our battered democracy,
and stop the drones from bombing civilians,
and house every homeless family in the world,
Even if we could end racism and violence,
Even if everyone had equal rights,
and every child born had an opportunity to flourish to their full potential,
and everyone had access to healthcare,
and employment with a living wage
and somehow, somehow we finally figured out
how to get along with one another…
this week, in Paris
men (mostly men)
are blowing our last chance,
are plotting how to pretend they care,
are scheming how to continue raping and pillaging our earth
and destroying the delicate envelope that caresses this sunset,
until there will be nothing left alive,
to pause and pay homage to a purple sky.
But I dare not give in to cry,
I dare not let thoughts of defeat creep in,
because there is only us left now,
to use every last breath
to breathe life into a movement,
a revolution
that not only changes everything,
but supersedes everything.
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