I might have been born a tree
Whose limbs caress the nests of birds,
Or perhaps a stream
Where water creatures live and spawn.
Mobile things that share the sky, were not my fate:
Birds, clouds, rain, thunder and the like
That fill the day or night with joy or fright,
Give life or take it in an instant or an era.

But I was born of woman, part of humankind
To claim, like others, that we are the best of all creation
Even though we daily pollute the very air we breathe
And fill the oceans and the seas with garbage, thrash,
And evil things that damage the only home we have
To share with all creation as through the universe we speed
Thinking we can fix our every excess without cost.

It takes eons, fire or the smallest of all creatures we only see with special aids
Who have no brains, and intellect, or learning
That struggle to survive
Laboring endlessly to recycle the trash
We smarter beings spew in air and land and sea.
Earth is home to more than just the billions of our kind.
These other creatures, flora, fauna, big and small
Need a healthy planet to survive the same as us.
We also speed our own demise by careless waste
And paving over habitat that keep our home in balance
Destroying places that creation needs to endure and help us.

Poems are written by a person like me
But we together must restore the trees
That take the waste we breath
And restore the oxygen we need;
Clean up the spring and streams to drink;
Cool climate so that calmer winds and seas,
Fairer skies, and gentler breeze prevail
Trying to restore the better parts of times gone by.
Survival needs harmony and balance,
Everyone must do our part before it is too late.

~ Raymond Leo Blain