AH, HUMANITY!

Ah, humanity!

How I love the way you

scatter houses around on hillsides

The cottages are best,

nestled into the breast of earth.

Mansions and palaces

are another thing.

They can’t be comfortable anywhere.

Ah, humanity!

How I love the way you

plant trees one, two, three

here and there

and all along the roadways.

The giant oaks like thunderclouds,

dwarf everything else

in the fields and valleys of my memory.

Ah, humanity!

How I love the way you

honored the torrey pines and made a park

high above the shining sea

so Nancy and I could walk 

among them in an afternoon

and say the things a father

and daughter should say to each other.

Ah, humanity!

How I hate the way you

repent of your carelessness

only after it’s too late to save anything

but your own sunburned ego.

Mars and Earth

may someday have more in common

than their parent Sun.