From the edge of the woods
her face, alert,
liquid eyes, so soft,
she is holding her breath
to make sure I will move on
and cause her no harm.
We have already assured our extinction.
Only 50 years ago, 2.7 billion
populated this world-
now 7.7 and climbing with each
second hand twitch.
Consuming everything
without a care in the world.
And the earth is ready
to shake us off like fleas,
to resume her natural course
of morning sunrises and evening moons
and stars that will outshine
anything we could have ever created.
And I hope some day,
those soft liquid eyes
will look again over a recovered land
and make her way across the earth
in perfect fearless strides.
thecourseofourseasons 
Hopeful and sad.
I’d like to believe in nature being able to shrug us off like fleas (it’s what we deserve) but I can’t see it. We’ll destroy everything else first and cling on by our fingernails to the destruction.
This stanza says it all:
‘And the earth is ready
to shake us off like fleas,
to resume her natural course
of morning sunrises and evening moons
and stars that will outshine
anything we could have ever created’.
This planet has gone through so many changes and catastrophes. Dinosaurs became extinct and so will the human race – then Nature will clear up the mess and carry on.
I pray for that – someday nature will take its course and all that is ours will crumble away like dust. How frightful that we consume everything without a care in the world.
This is a beautiful write Kathleen. Happy to read you after some time. Hope all is well.
I love the line of the earth shaking us off like flies… more realistic than we might imagine! Well done.
Yes, I feel that too.
Democracies becoming fascist banana republics, the polar caps melting–are we teetering toward the end of days? I have 9 grandchildren who inherit our stupidity.
Those soft liquid eyes will only see beauty and safety again when the human cancer is eradicated, and we are doing our best to insure that – the dumb asses that we are. Beautiful and sad write Kathleen.
AMEN. I pray every bit of it comes to pass. Beautiful poem of a hoped-for tomorrow. We were given paradise and look what we are doing to it.
I love the image of being shaken off like fleas. It does feel as if we are parasitic, take take take, giving little…
I hope so too — I certainly think that the earth would be better off without the humankind. Your written word provides quite a reality check of our own inconsequence and all that we have done.
Very well penned!
I’m in love with that second to last stanza, ‘shake us off like fleas’ is a wonderful line.
“We are consuming everything without a care in the world.
And the world is ready to shake us off like fleas,”
Brilliant. And unfortunately true.
Hi Cindy – I just read a long essay by a journalist and scientist where she laid out all the evidence that we are already long past the point of no return. It freaked me out but at the end her conclusion was enjoy it while you have it. Get out in nature, meditate, live in the moment. Good advice whether we are doomed or not! K