Dolphins have been around for 50 million years.
Koala Bears have been around for over 23 million years.
People (human beings) have been around for 300,000 years.
Because of people, dolphins and koalas and people
May not be around too much longer.
I'm sorry, dolphin.
I'm sorry, koala.
I'm not very sorry for people.
To be sorry for us I would have to be a saint.
All of this could have been avoided.
We could have changed how we do civilization
Any number of times.
We talk a good talk
But we walk a bad walk.
We walk through each other,
We walk lying down,
We walk in place,
We walk on the moon,
We walk to our car,
We walk into the store.
We walk back to the car with bags full of X, Y or Z.
We walk to the war drum,
We walk right through golden opportunities
With our eyes shut, always thinking,
thinking, thinking . . .
We sleepwalk,
We walk ignoring the dead. . .
In our obituary it ought to be noted:
"They were really good at starting over."
While crossing from an island in Maine to the mainland
I saw a dolphin stitching the waves together with its sleek silver body.
In a video I saw a koala demonstrating how to slow down.
But that makes you a target for any predator, I said
To my imaginary koala.
My koala didn't look up.
I guess he figured I was smart enough to figure it out for myself
That if slowness was a deathwish
They wouldn't have survived for 23 million years.
But the fires that are burning up the earth
(Legacy of our brief 300,000 years
Of sharing the planet with dolphins and koalas)
Those fires have decimated 30% of the koala nation
All within the last decade.
I slowed down one day
Enough to overhear my heart chakra
Talking to my root chakra:
I can't stand it, my heart said. It's all too sad and upsetting.
My root chakra didn't look up.
My root chakra was focused
On moving slowly and balancing my steps
I try to move slowly like the koala
Through the hurting land.
I try not to look over my shoulder too often.
But honestly?
I'm talking karmically now, but
I don't think I want to start over again.
It's too hard
And what's the point?
I think 300,000 years should be long enough.
We're 300,000 years old!
And we still haven't learned
How to play nicely,
How to share,
How to eat and drink in moderation,
And how to pick up after ourselves.
This poem is done.
..................
Reflection:
I'm satisfied with how this poem ends without warning. When I say, "I don't think I can start over again", I am speaking for myself and as a human being with 300,000 year old DNA. I'm perplexed: 40 or 50 years should be enough time for one human being to master enough of life to grow up which is defined as "playing nicely, sharing, eating and drinking in moderation and picking up" after oneself, but 300,000 years of being human should be enough to have mastered our big brain and walking upright and being a mature species, like the dolphin or the koala. Don't you think?? I see this poem as my way of announcing a certain weariness of spirit. The feeling is that I've been here any number of times before, done that, been that, tried that. I'm tired of "starting over", which is what the human race, in the end, is probably best at. But it's dumb, it's meaningless, it isn't going anywhere compared to the success of the dolphin and the koala, who we could have learned from, but instead we are wiping them out with pollution and fire, even as we prepare to "start over", as we have done again and again and again for our entire evolutionary history. I don't know where this poem leaves me but I feel like taking a break, not to start over but to retool. Whether I do or not remains to be seen. This poem might just be a way of clearing my head of a few cobwebs.
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