What made us think?

We looked at the world.

We took it all in

In colours and smells and

Thorns in our toes.

 

We smoothed down

The bark, carpeted

The mud, wove over

The stark panic

 

Or stole skin

From creatures better

Equipped for a trip

To this planet.

 

We woke up

Morn after morn and

Wondered what had swung

The orb lights round,

 

Seeming kinned

To the glints in the

Rock; mine it, let it

Wink at its clan.

 

Danger prints

On the track brim with

Odour, boding blood-

For it or us,

 

Suddenly

We revved our heads and

Span a thought sharper

Than a sabre’s tooth.

Working the Earth

Work to produce to

Make the day into

Something full of

Activity to replace

The necessity it used to bring,

When cold was a thing to be

Feared and hunger

Was a real beast

Lurking in the thicket

Keeping sucklings fed.

Work to produce to

Make life out of business

And stuff out of wire to

Whirr full the cables that

Keep operating while the

Forests host hackers and

Frozen screens glacier

Crash faster than we can

Gloss over snaps with cyber

Ice cream to fill the cracks

Where Earth used to be .

Tending Towards Generosity

Why do we sow and water a patch

We do not own? Is it because we

Know that we and Peace are jeopardised

If our sunflower seeds are left to grow smug

Beside barren pods who cannot

See the sun, blinded by jealousy and

Deranged by the thirst that comes

From sharing Earth with thicker

Roots than theirs can ever be?

 

In tending to what is not ours, Nature does

Not credit us with generosity, She understands

How truly selfish are her fans,

To share the water, Earth and Sun

Is not Love but preservation of a self

That needs the nourishment that

Giving gives the giver to feed the

Craving for that gratitude and Love

That fills us when we have enough to eat but

Goes lactic as we grow hungry, keen to steal

And fence what we once gave and scattered.