Fumbling Along, Accidentally Shattering

Honestly, all I did was pick it up for the first time and it just fell apart in my hands

It was not our objective to turn rivers into filthy, stinking, channelized dead zones

I tripped over it and then watched as it split into a million razor-pointed shards

Our plan did not specify that we would convert life-giving rain into poisonous runoff

I never saw that other car approaching as I texted while turning left, reaching for my coffee

We did not mean to gash the landscape and ruin the air to provide power for happy families

I forced its mechanism until something snapped and then I slowly picked up the instruction sheet

Their collateral suffering was not detailed in our larger strategy for their democratic liberation

With a choice of assembling it one way of 2 ways, as always I did it incorrectly the first 2 times

Our efforts to grow our food were not meant to unwind the surrounding ecosystem

I don’t remember what I was grasping for when I spilled the coffee that ruined the rug

It was never intended that our war for their freedom would fracture their society

Afterwards it was easy to see how stupid it was to leave it sitting there, right in the way

Trying to foster economic growth we unwittingly destroyed the natural systems that supported it

I bet on a long shot without thinking much and quickly lost far more than I could afford

When the logging and mining was done there were suddenly neither jobs nor tourists

I was backing out when I felt a muffled crunch and heard a splitting sound behind me

We assumed a trillion independent selfish decisions would blindly optimize our futures

I reached out for something else and this fell, broken into a thousand pieces, on the floor

We never realized how really cheap oil was until we were suddenly paralyzed by its price

I was just trying to keep us happy but our family emissions helped end a biological era

We never thought real estate would tumble as we packaged up all those bad loans

It accidentally shattered as we turned the corner and struck it against the wall

We never intended to create this endless sterile, unimaginative and alienating environment

Trying to steady the nail with one hand, I beat my finger black and blue with the hammer

Well, obviously we could not have foreseen a climate change induced agricultural collapse

In my hurry I tried to carry too much at once and then cleaned up for many hours afterwards

The objectives of our corporate hog farms did not include poisoning human drinking water

Standing up, I lacerated my forehead one more time on that darn overhanging shelf

We could not foresee their local development decisions that fostered regional ecological collapse

The wrench slipped again and I gashed my knuckle which then filled with filthy grease

The roads we built to speed up traffic quickly cloned into snarled and decaying suburbs

Walking in the dark, I broke my wrist before I even knew I had slipped on unseen black ice

Pesticides saved the crops but got into the water and poisoned our mothers and children

I did not realize you stood behind us as I joked loudly about your many shortcomings

We never meant to ruin the economy by destroying the only environment that made it possible, at all

Time Could Not Heal

Time did not heal the wounds he wore as he attended his own solemn burial

The passing of so many hurried years did not make them any wiser

Their broadcasted fantasies were not meant to have prepared the populace

Endless dull repetition did not bring her to some flashpoint of enlightenment

Sadly, the fear and worry that always drove them never lead to that happily ever after

All the time that convenience saved them was not stockpiled for their later enjoyment

Their passing would not heal the awful recognitions they suffered during their last days

There was no happy guided segue from this laying tubed up in a paralyzed desperation

That ever-pending eternity would disperse their strong feelings but never change them

Forever could not make up for any of their suffering, despite other’s pious assurances

For time could heal them no more once they had gone off and left us for good

The light-hearted empty lives of some, ironically enough, proved as useful as any pious brooding

Time neither erased his sins nor granted him the forgiveness his victims finally learned

Distance did not separate them from the memories they would always carry inside

No matter who those sad women slept with, they always awoke with themselves

The many long years did not help him to accept his own hideous apparition

She always carried that pain in a place that was walled off, but not inaccessible

They always sought something indefinable, though there was nothing left to tempt them

Time would certainly not heal the loneliness of her isolation during those final years

His healthy lifestyle was of no use forever once all his cells had ceased activity

They even dreamed it was not time that they needed, but devices that might save it for them

As he slowly faded, his only wish was that he could simply resume his empty, hectic life

The eternity that awaited her was oblivious to her many selfless sacrifices

His passing did not bring him the long-awaited pleasure of seeing his many enemies in Hell

Sadly, their quiet acceptance of lifelong suffering did not grant them an eternity with god

Time did not even try to heal their pain as their spreading wakes never quite faded to nothing

There would be no paradoxical heaven which included both the wise hermit and the great leader

Time could not halt the dispersion of any molecules that made up their hypothetical eternal souls

By A Thread

Balanced on a tipping point thanks solely to our own good and focused efforts

Risking not only our foolish selves but the entire complex web of life on earth as well

So close now we must shout above the noise we make so we do not have to hear

Hanging on by someone else’s fingernail while we concern ourselves only with the view

Piddling with the fancy GPS instead of just looking up ahead through the windshield

Held up by an unraveling thread yet somehow still struggling wildly to be freed

Heated almost to the boiling point but unwilling to turn down the flame

Out of breath but still running while trying to bray silly orders and directions

Able to see the consequences clearly now but still unwilling to change the course

Just looking at the road ahead as the entire load commences to sway and tip

Depending that the river ice won’t break as we cross far too late in the springtime

Speeding through a stormy night overloaded with worn out tires on bad roads

Stumbling in the darkness but too much in a hurry to take the time to fix the light

Wading just at the edge of a steep, invisible drop-off without knowing how to swim

Needle pegged on empty but so far away from any town on a cloudy, moonless night

Talking on the cellphone and screaming at the kids as the latte spills and a truck pulls out

Much older now, for such a long time, than we ever imagined we could become

Safe and dry with a picnic lunch in our rowboat unaware of the waterfall up ahead

In a hurry, but blinded, on a foggy night with the street covered all in white

So near to losing all we’ve built but staying focused on living only for the moment

At the point where an unlikely salvation can only just arrive in the very nick of time

Unknowingly separated by merest hairsbreadth from total and eternal annihilation

Milliseconds from a stunning crash we did not see coming and will not live to remember

Catching the disappearing rays of the last gorgeous sunset on our final dream vacation

Caught in a still picture of that fantastic blur at the end of this, our futile race

Poised upon a great divide and now at the mercy of entropy as to which way we flow

Having risen to the edge of space there is this brief and subtle pause upon our zenith

Reaching too far over, from several rungs too high, with no one below to steady us

Betting everything on an untested long shot some salesman touted as the next sure thing

Just one more minor system insult from initiating a cascading set of networked failures

Going so fast that even if we make it we won’t really know until it’s way long over

Hanging by one silky thread but still living really large thanks to greed and denial

Blindly Destructive Hand Of The Free Marketplace

Coupled with an unwavering and blind faith in our choice from all of those One True Gods

The blind hand of the marketplace unerringly creates optimal economic solutions

Thus, toxic emissions from our vehicles should not be saddled with artificial taxes

But weapons producers can increase demand through promotion of phony bogeymen

Given our love of exotic hardwoods, loggers quite naturally clear cut and sell them all

Pure supply and demand is always superior to meddling government social interventions

Strictly for-profit healthcare will provide all the medical services the old, sick & poor really need

If it is cheaper to bulldoze cropland than to redevelop strip malls, that alone makes it proper

Exterminating predators in competition for our domestic cattle is natural to market economics

Quite naturally, social costs cannot be found on the ledgers of brave entrepreneurs

Nobody profits from forests quietly filtering drinking water, so their rate of return is zero

Producers need not pay for problems their contaminated dust brings to far off lands

Making coal clean is inefficient and costs the consumer more, so it is to be avoided

Air and water are free goods and pollution controls are simply taxes, not investments

Capitalists will always be rewarded for reducing prices through slashing labor costs

If the Chinese will pay $600/oz, starving tribesman will sell all the ivory they can gun down

Factory trawlers can rob an old african fishing village of its living in the name of globalism

Short-term crop increases justify the overuse of fossil water and costly, dangerous chemicals

It is merely simpleminded idealism to hope for economic self-interest to be tempered with altruism

Our financials contain no long-term debt reflecting unsustainable resource usage

I can use my 300 hp SUV solely as an air-conditioner because the gas is all I need to pay for

Why add costly insulation to my home when energy costs less the more that I use

Neither the producer nor the consumer has any economic incentive to recycle

Laissez-faire allows prices to rise until scarce goods are simply driven to extinction

A dirt-poor consumer lacks incentive to drive producers towards sustainable practices

Government income transfers are an unnatural artifact which corrupt a pure economy

Hiring illegal immigrants at a fraction of market rate is rational economic behavior

Using a cheap, unregulated foreign food ingredients yields a clever competitive advantage

Shifting production overseas saves costs and justifiably brings executives great rewards

A large, poor, uneducated, young workforce benefits producers of consumer goods

Realistically, pension plans make no business sense and are to be eliminated via bankruptcy

Citizens should pay their own way in free retirement and healthcare marketplaces

Tying electablility to fundraising neatly marries entrepreneurship with politics

Certainly, we can rely on supply and demand curves to intersect at sustainable catch levels

We reflect with pride on our pollution reduction, having exported all of our factories

A no-strings bailout of the Too-Big-To-Fail will produce a blossoming of industrial self-regulation

We will simply let the marketplace test the survivability of these so-called endangered species

Working In The Darkness

It seemed as if I strained to leave a message by pressing tiny keys in heavy mittens

I thought I spoke very clearly given that I was so far beneath the surface

On my knees I felt my way with heavily-wrapped hands, alone

I tried to read but there was too much darkness before the tiny print

I heard many of the finer details crumbling beneath my clumsy feet

I had to remove all my tools just to squeeze on thru the smallest openings

I thought they spoke to me as I crawled by, but they were simply saying grace

I was condemned to groping with zippers flaps and buttons with thick gloves in darkness

Always sat down to eat only to realize there were no forks or knives

Kept on finding myself driving far faster backwards than I ever would have considered

Could not free the strap but it was too dangerous to remove my mittens

Groped my way through a black labyrinth that was but a child’s cluttered bedroom

Followed my trail in a circle cleaning up what flaked off my muddy boots

Working through the noisy rooms, I could not quite grasp their radio transmissions

Craved to rip my mask away but knew the atmosphere was deadly poison

I handed up my shovel when the hole was dug and then they told me to lay down

Working in that smoky darkness, over-heated and running low on air

We repeatedly shouted simple things to each other through our coverings and the din

Though I rose quickly for the surface, I was not sure if I could hold my breath that long

The protective lens was fogged but with the smoke it did not matter

I was wearing and carrying far too much to even do the little work assigned me

Hardly able to keep up, much more of a burden than any help at all

Feeling the entire sandy hill slide underneath me towards an unseen cliff

Forced to accidentally break many useful objects just to find the door

I concentrated my efforts on overloaded groping like a blind and half-deaf mole

I solved the puzzle with perfect logic but never knew my solution began incorrectly

Came to an ambivalent fork that was not on the map, far too long ago to turn back now

Working in the darkness, everything I had taken for granted rose up to claim my attention

As I moved, different parts of my body each locked into position like a finished puzzle

With every sweating overheated gasping breath I longed merely to kneel and rest

Moving through this poisonous darkness with all our senses protected, and cut off

Far-off voices called after me and I simply could not bring myself to ignore them

From somewhere within me came the feel of that cool Canadian air from my boyhood

I lay there thinking that I heard that church bell tolling long and gentle once again

I dreamed I was mummied up in bandages and blankets rolling down a bumpy road

But sometimes the darkness did not frighten me because I had no more light within