The Milky Way once cast a shadow
Obliterated now by billions of tiny human suns
In the days before
Manmade things
Cars, planes cell phones
Before the telegraph and trains
Before the car radio and the news
Before the background music
When the only sounds were
Horse hooves and carts
Herds of sheep and cattle
Plows grinding slow through the dirt
Wind rustled leaves and blowing dust
Rain and running water wandering over rock
Birdsong was all one would hear
When nature was big and scary
And full of gods and mystery
When man was on the menu
People hunted and gathered for existence
Stalking deer in the meadow
Is perception of beauty a luxury of technology?
Have we been divorced from the awe of it all?
Or just a wild and scary world where survival
Was the master?
…When we have reached the limits
Of life, of livable, viable life
When the oceans don’t produce enough oxygen
In the once stardust rich waters that rained down
Where the fish have shrunken eyes
From burning the souls of ancient plants
Turned to melting heat flooded cities full of never completed humans
…And we have lost all connection all memory
Of wild days when mystery animated the woods and streams
When we went from being spirit animals to chemical robots
At the mercy of our masters
Ourselves manufacturing money out of everything given freely by the universe
We ceased to exist and the world didn’t know or care