WHAT THEY HAVE WROUGHT
Looking over this land reminds of what it once was:
Lush, green, inviting – peaceful – prosperous.
Now? What they did to it! Sad. Pitiable.
Dry, eroded, junk strewn – ruined. By man!
It didn’t have to be this way.
Man – humans – such arrogant, petty, pathetic creatures.
That did not have to be either – though it has always been,
In retrospect. Their potential so egregiously squandered.
They could think – reason! See what they did with that.
They threw it all away.
They thought they were gods. Gods. How laughable.
What do they know of gods? What could they know?
The Universe so far above their paltry little minds.
They thought there was a plan. A plan for them!
What blatant inane idiocy.
A system, yes, that permitted species to cultivate, progress.
And man did, for a time, but so imperfectly, with no respect.
They could little understand cooperation and sacrifice;
Instead falling into competition, greed, avarice – selfishness.
Truly they squandered birthright.
There was once a land with dreams of making a better world;
Man is not devoid of visions of what is possible and could be.
He is merely unable to make it happen, so selfish is he.
So many chances, each ending the same way. Like this.
So few could build, so many destroy.
And this land that had it all? The land over which we look?
Pleasure bloated though they became, they had a noble view
That the world could be a better place, as defined by them,
All working together, with noble thoughts, and compassion.
Alas, the system only PERMITS progress.
Progress without cultivation, bereft of trust, died barren;
With hopeless naiveté in regard to the nature of man.
One wonders at such developed minds being so short sighted;
Alas, short sighted was the sin that brought them down.
They could not see beyond self.
For a time there was creation, industry; there was progress.
But never enough, for selfish man, and struggle was blind.
Creation turned to pleasure, while industry atrophied;
All feeling entitled without understanding how it came to be.
There was a fable: a goose laid golden eggs.
They knew the fable, heard its words, but were blind to meaning.
While in other lands, less fair, resentment, anger and envy grew.
In the land of the fair, how they came to be so was forgotten,
And they opened their land to those unwilling to share their vision.
Thus the land came to be as now.
Not all were destroyers, but few were creators and creation declined.
With it declined the means to maintain energy and vibrancy.
Slowly, as man’s naturally contentious nature asserted itself
The fabric of the land and the vitality of its people became frayed
Until it became what it is today.
The destroyers destroyed without creating; creators were marginalized;
While intellectual leaders, blinded by ideology and power, condemned,
Lashing out at the very foundations of progress, industry that made them,
Tearing the heart from the body politic that was once the world’s envy.
Such is the ebb and flow of civilization.
Man would remake his world as paradise – and himself as all-wise god –
Eliminating all that is unseemly, creating pleasure – without effort.
No effort, foolish man? Know you not that effort is the foundation of life?
Think you that you change the cycles of nature you arrogant and puny fool?
You can only destroy self, and you do.
Meanwhile your world has been taken over by insects that now rule
Where you once ruled. Their brains are small, their reason nonexistent.
They eat each other, but otherwise go about their business and multiply.
They care not for pleasure and cultivate nothing; neither do they destroy - much.
So what will their world become?