PERCEPTION

When Mother Earth shrugs, I pay attention (even when it means turning to television news). And Mother has been shrugging lately. Unusual weather, two major earthquakes, and a huge glacier-calving event in Antartica within a month or two of one another denotes some restlessness in our blue-green planet.

But are humans responsible for Her tossing and turning? It seems a bit egocentric of us to believe that we influence nature that much. Our primitive predecessors believed themselves to be an intimate part of the world they lived in. Unfortunately, as humans became more “civilized”, we stepped away from our support system and saw it as something to be dominated and manipulated.

We talk about the world as though our consciousness is responsible for its existence. If all humanity should cease to exist, will this planet dissolve into oblivion? Surely, few believe that, but there seem to be many who believe this marvelous Earth would be worthless without us, that its very purpose is to serve as life support for the top of the food chain.

When we treat Earth as a slave to our wants, how can that not spill over into the way we treat one another?

         Awakening

I slumbered, enchanted

by dreams of blue and green.
Shifting in tranquil sleep,
I exhaled soft spring rain,
Pushed mountains through bare plains.
But aimless children stomped
Through my spider-webbed dreams,
Tearing my gauzy truth.
Annoyed, I blinked awake
And found my long, brown arms
Circled by hard, gray bands;
My wild leaf-green hair shorn;
My eyes blinded with smoke.
I shuddered, and concrete
Ribbons snapped from my wrists.
I shook my bereft head,
And the shearing ended.
I wiped my streaming eyes,
And civilization
Fell away. Once again,
Unfettered by mankind,
I slumber, enchanted
by dreams of blue and green.