The world is often close around, its taste upon our breath
filling our dreams with noble schemes of unknown width and depth.
It gives us of its bounty and leaves us deep in a debt
that we must somehow then repay, but sometimes we forget;
and in a blur of flurried action, we race and we build,
improving transportation and keeping our produce chilled.
We change the summer’s heat to cool, and deserts we make wet,
and though we know there must be balance, sometimes we forget.
Around us all the world is changing, still becoming born;
and in the face of our extinction, we become forlorn.
Some look for change to right all wrongs or some learn to regret
the inconvenience of our past, or sometimes we forget.
And despite our advances in the arts of sport and war,
we leave behind the slower paced, the hungry and footsore,
advancing truth and righteous causes on a palimpsest
that we all know will fade to naught, yet sometimes we forget.
In quiet times of desperation, each of us may pause
and wonder why the world won’t rally there behind our cause.
We speak in words meant to disguise our selfish reasons, yet
sometimes believe in common good, still sometimes we forget.
And in our speeches we say freedom and personal rights,
then by the grace of others’ toil, we pine for vain delights,
crying out “’tis oppression” when we must earn by our sweat.
We know the means define the end, but sometimes we forget.
02 AUG 2003
