90 seconds to extinction

Our planet is not like Venus, roasting in heat,

nor like Mars, frigid and barren yet irradiated.

We inhabit a world of life, lush, fertile, nutritive

to our human swarm that threatens to choke itself.

Not blessed with wing or fang or claw,

humble Homo Sapiens made do with

hands and brain and desperate practice.

We became so good at killing, we rose to the top.

Now we threaten to eliminate ourselves altogether.

Nuclear and aerospace armaments poised at

each others throats like so many giant daggers,

our trigger fingers twitch and itch for payback.

The lower species, if they have a lucid moment left,

will perhaps laugh in their own way.

“Those humans thought they were so mature,

so clever, so smart, that they devised a way to

end their species forever.”

Now who is on top?

Nobody.

Evolving viewpoints

Evolution is incredibly complex,

with niches dependent on other niches.

We need Mr and Mrs Bat to eat lots of mosquitoes,

helping us keep down the spread of diseases.

Praying Mantises eat lots of baddies too,

and manage to do it looking so cool.

Various other insects all play their part

in this intricate dance of our ecology.

Dying trees give up their corpse to all:

Birds to nest and shelter in, cozy and dry.

Squirrels to hide nuts and make their home.

Various minute creatures feed on the wood,

in turn they fertilize and enrich the soil.

In time, new trees will emerge from stray seeds.

The young saplings will stretch and grab for sky,

eager athletes showing their happiness to play their role

to provide homes for new generations of climbing or flying life.

As the Earth orbits the sun, so the cycle repeats, over and over.

As crawling molds and algae morphed into grasses,

then the grasses morphed into flowers and trees;

then sea life ooozed itself onto land, grew legs,

evolved into so many kinds of animals, mammals,

hominids, apes, and finally, us.

Despite any willingness on our part to imagine some

Alien intervention, it seems pretty clear by now that

we evolved from humbler beginnings.

Through learning, competition and survival struggles,

we just keep getting better, smarter, and more lethal.

I feel sorry for those in the past, as they did not

have it as good as we do now.

But the future is too difficult to imagine anymore.

Glad that at least I have now –
we all have now to make a difference.

Emotive experiments

Emotive

A new day starts good,

email generates big results,

look at me now, powerful and in command.

The universe is responding well today,

there is some hope for the future.

Then disparaging remarks get floated,

I try to ignore, tense up, twitch faster.

More are heard, and the temperature rises,

Stomping along try not to explode.

A kind word, a quiet reflection,

mood stabilizes. Progress happens.

Achievements – lifting spirits.

Then, bottlenecks, difficulties, struggles.

Shaking with temper furies, getting thru it.

Bimbos have the nerve to laugh at my misery.

The day ends on a somewhat positive note,

I make a grateful escape to the car,

weathering an ice storm, less harsh

than that thing I faced indoors.

Friend emotive

Call him, chat and feel good.

We talk over each other,

lousy cellular connection,

both try three times, start over.

Frustrated enough without this crap.

Broach touchy subjects,

be careful, back away, compliment;

Got to contain my own temper.

Keeping it cool, continuing into better areas.

Happier things: dinner out, travel, retirement, sex.

End the phone conversation on an upbeat note.

Another stormy sea navigated,

tricky currents at-tacked well.

Pull into port and

breathe a big sigh of relief.

Did not sink a friendship today!